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Copyright Notice
Autodesk® Maya® 2010 Software
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Contents
Chapter 1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
About the Getting Started lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Installing Maya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Conventions used in the lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Using the lesson files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Using the Maya Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Additional learning resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Restoring default user settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
iii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Creating a new scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Primitive objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Toolbox: Layout shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Toolbox: Transformation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
The Channel Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Duplicating objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Save your work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Lesson 3: Viewing the Maya 3D scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Camera tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Workflow overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Viewing objects in shaded mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Grouping objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The Hypergraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Selection modes and masks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Pivot points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Save your work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Lesson 4: Components and attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Template display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The Attribute Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Surface materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Save your work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
iv | Contents
Adding polygons to a mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Splitting polygon faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Terminating edge loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Deleting construction history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Mirror copying a mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Working with a smoothed mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Creasing and hardening edges on a mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Lesson 2: Sculpting a polygon mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Open the scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Using Soft Select . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Selecting with Camera based selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Sculpting with symmetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Sculpting with Surface based falloff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Selecting with Drag select . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Adjusting the Seam tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Contents | v
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
vi | Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Open the first scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Creating clips with Trax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Changing the position of clips with Trax . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Editing the animation of clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Reusing clips within Trax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Soloing and muting tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
Scaling clips within Trax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Open the second scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Creating clips from motion capture data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Extending the length of motion capture data . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Redirecting the motion within a clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Lesson 5: Inverse kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Open the scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Understanding hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Viewing hierarchies using the Hypergraph . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Creating a skeleton hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Parenting a model into a skeleton hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Applying IK to a skeleton hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Creating a control object for an IK system . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Constraining an IK system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Limiting the range of motion of an IK system . . . . . . . . . . 298
Simplifying the display of a hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Applying parent constraints on an IK system . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Planning an animation for an IK system . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Animating an IK system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Contents | vii
Smooth binding a skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Skin weighting and deformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Modifying skin weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Influence objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Lesson 3: Cluster and blend shape deformers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Open the scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Creating a target object for a blend shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
Creating a cluster deformer on a target object . . . . . . . . . . 346
Editing cluster weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Creating a blend shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Refining deformation effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Adding target objects to an existing blend shape . . . . . . . . . 355
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
viii | Contents
Viewing a normal map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Contents | ix
Open the scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520
Render the scene using raytracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
Render the scene using caustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526
Beyond the Lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
x | Contents
Rendering Paint Effects strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Paint Effects on 3D objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Creating a surface to paint on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590
Painting on objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Using turbulence with brush stroke tubes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
Using additional preset brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
Mesh brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
Converting mesh strokes to polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
Modifying a converted polygonal mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Lesson 3: Painting textures on surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Open the scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
Preparing for painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609
Painting with an Artisan brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611
Painting symmetrical strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612
Using Flood All to apply a single color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Brush shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613
Painting with a Paint Effects brush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 615
Smearing and blurring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Painting a bump map texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621
Contents | xi
Using creation expressions to set a constant color . . . . . . . . 645
Using runtime expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646
Modifying runtime expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
xii | Contents
Using the edit flag in Python . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711
Communicating between Python and MEL . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715
Contents | xiii
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776
Lesson 2: Creating a dynamic non-hair simulation . . . . . . . . . . . 777
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777
Lesson setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778
Setting up the curtain scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778
Making the hair collide with another object . . . . . . . . . . . 782
Assigning a Paint Effects brush to the hair . . . . . . . . . . . . 782
Setting up constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784
Rendering the curtain scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787
xiv | Contents
Chapter 17 Fur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829
Preparing for the lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830
Lesson 1: Assigning a fur description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830
Lesson setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831
Duplicating objects across an axis of symmetry . . . . . . . . . . 831
Renaming surfaces on a model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
Assigning objects to a reference layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 834
Assigning a fur description preset to a model . . . . . . . . . . . 836
Reversing surface normals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838
Modifying the fur direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840
Painting fur attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843
Modifying the color of a fur description . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850
Creating a new fur description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853
Lesson 2: Rendering fur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855
Lesson setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855
Creating lights in a scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856
Adding fur shadowing attributes to lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858
Rendering the scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861
Contents | xv
Making the character wear the dress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 897
Caching nCloth to speed up playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 898
Adjusting the fit of the dress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899
Defining the behavior of nCloth clothing . . . . . . . . . . . . 900
Painting nCloth properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 902
Open the second scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905
Setting the initial state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905
Constraining nCloth clothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 907
Improving the quality of the nCloth simulation . . . . . . . . . 909
Smoothing nCloth clothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 913
xvi | Contents
Open the third scene for the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970
Render your liquid simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
Assigning material shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 972
Rendering a simulated frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 974
Beyond the lesson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 976
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011
Contents | xvii
xviii
Overview
1
Introduction
Welcome to Autodesk® Maya®, one of the world’s leading software applications
for 3D digital animation and visual effects. Maya provides a comprehensive
suite of tools for your 3D content creation work ranging from modeling,
animation, and dynamics through to painting and rendering to name but a
few.
With Maya, you can create and edit 3D models in a variety of modeling formats
and animate your models using Maya’s suite of animation tools. Maya also
provides a range of tools to allow you to render your animated 3D scenes to
achieve photo realistic imagery and animated visual effects.
You can create convincing visual simulations using Maya dynamics and
nDynamics tools. Using Maya® Fluid EffectsTM, you can simulate and render
viscous fluids, atmospheric, pyrotechnic, and ocean effects. Maya® nClothTM
lets you create simulations of fabric and clothing, while Maya® nParticlesTM
can be used to simulate a wide range of effects including liquids, clouds, smoke,
spray, and dust. Other Maya dynamic simulation tools include Maya® FurTM,
Maya® HairTM, and Maya® ArtisanTM brush tools.
The Maya software interface is fully customizable for those users who require
the ability to maximize their productivity. Maya allows users to extend their
functionality within Maya by providing access to MELTM (Maya Embedded
Language). With MEL, you can customize the user interface and write scripts
and macros. In addition, a full Application Programmers Interface (API) is
available to enhance the power and functionality of Maya. Maya also provides
a Python-based Maya API for those users wishing to use it.
The content creation power of Maya is provided to users in an integrated software
application that is designed to enhance user productivity and ease of use.
1
This section provides the following information:
■ Using the lesson files–How to access and use the lesson files for the Getting
Started with Maya lessons.
■ Using the Maya Help–Outlines the various help resources provided with
your Maya software.
2 | Chapter 1 Overview
We recommend that any new Maya user begin by completing the following:
■ Viewing the Essential Skills Movies that are available when you first start
Maya.
The version of Getting Started with Maya within the Maya Help also contains
Apple® QuickTime® movies for some of the lessons.
Installing Maya
You must have Maya installed and licensed on your computer system to
successfully complete the lessons in this guide. To operate Maya on your
computer you must be running a qualified Microsoft® Windows®, Linux®, or
When you are instructed to select the option box for a particular menu item
within Maya, we use the following convention:
■ Menu > Command > Option (for example, Create > NURBS Primitives>
Sphere > ).
4 | Chapter 1 Overview
Using the lesson files
Many of the Getting Started with Maya lessons have accompanying lesson
files that were created for use with the lessons. These files are included in the
GettingStarted directory that was installed with your Maya software and can
be found in the following locations:
(Windows XP and Vista, 32 and 64-bit)
<drive>:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\GettingStarted
(Mac OS X)
/Applications/Autodesk/maya2010/GettingStarted
(Linux 64-bit)
/usr/autodesk/maya2010-x64/GettingStarted
Before you use the lesson files, you need to copy the GettingStarted directory
to your Maya projects folder. Then, you need to set the GettingStarted folder
as your project directory in Maya. For more information and steps, see Copying
and setting the Maya project on page 25.
1 In the Essential Skills Movies window, click the buttons to play a movie.
Your computer launches the necessary multimedia player and your chosen
movie begins to play.
2 Click your multimedia player’s controls to start, stop, and pause the
movie.
1 To close the Essential Skills Movies window, click the close box in the
upper right corner of the window.
If you do not want to have this dialog box automatically display when
you start Maya, turn on the Don’t show this at startup check box.
2 To close the multimedia player, select File > Exit or click the close box in
the upper right corner of the window. (This instruction might vary
depending upon which multimedia player is used)
6 | Chapter 1 Overview
Maya Help
Your Maya software application comes installed with Maya technical
documentation that assists you in learning the Maya software. The Maya Help
is HTML-based, structured by module, fully searchable, and is displayed using
your computer’s web browser.
The Maya Help is topic based and displays the major functionality categories
for Maya. The Maya Help can assist you in finding reference information about
particular topics, how to perform specific tasks, and MELTM command
references.
➤ In the Maya Help navigation pane, click the name of the Maya topic you
want information about (for example, Modeling, Animation, Dynamics,
MEL commands, and so on).
The Maya Help displays the associated sub-topics and categories associated
with the name you selected.
3 In the text box, type a word that best represents your search topic.
By default, all of the content in the Maya Help is searched. You can
narrow the search results by selecting a specific user guide from the drop
down list below the text box.
Popup Help
Popup Help provides you with a quick method of identifying a particular tool
or icon in the Maya user interface.
8 | Chapter 1 Overview
To use Popup Help
■ In the Preferences window, click the Help category and set the Tooltips
box to Enable in the Popup Help section so a check mark appears.
■ In the Preferences window, click the Help category and click the
Tooltips Enable box in the Popup Help section so a check mark
appears.
Help Line
The Help Line at the bottom of Maya's window shows information about
tools, menus, and objects. Like the Popup help, it displays descriptions when
you move the mouse over icons and menu items. It also displays instructions
when you select a tool. This is useful if you don’t know or forget how to use
a particular tool.
Find Menu
The Find Menu feature lets you find the location of a particular menu item.
Find Menu works only on the main menu items.
2 Type the menu item you want to locate in the text field, and press Enter
(Windows and Linux) or Return (Mac OS X).
The possible locations for the main menu item display in the results field
of the Find Menu window.
10 | Chapter 1 Overview
The Maya Web site
The Maya Web site contains a wealth of resources related to your Maya software
and many other related products and services. You can view the Maya Web
site athttp://www.autodesk.com/maya using your web browser.
Autodesk Training
Autodesk provides a range of products and services to help you get the most
from your Maya software. You can purchase additional self-paced learning
materials or attend certified instructor led training courses at Autodesk
sanctioned training facilities. For more information, see
http://www.autodesk.com/maya-training.
Technical Support
Autodesk delivers technical support services for Maya globally through
telephone and email services, as well as online eSupport services. For more
information, click the Support Center link from the Maya Help menu or click
the Services and Support link on the Maya Web site.
NOTE If you are running the Japanese version of Maya, change en_US in the
above directory paths to ja_JP.
If you have a previous version of Maya installed, also rename that prefs
directory to a new name such as myprefs. Maya will load older preferences
if they exist from a previous version.
3 Start Maya and begin the Getting Started with Maya lessons.
12 | Chapter 1 Overview
Maya Basics
2
Introduction
13
This chapter covers some of the fundamental concepts and skills for Maya in
four lessons:
■ If you have never started Maya on your computer before, it will start for
the first time using the default preference settings.
■ If you have run Maya before, you should ensure that your Maya user
preferences are reset to their default setting. This ensures that the lessons
appear and work as described.
Refer to Restoring default user settings on page 11 for instructions on
resetting user preferences to the default setting.
■ Unless otherwise indicated, the directions in this chapter for making menu
selections assume you’re working from the Polygons menu set.
NOTE Before you perform the lessons in this book, ensure that the Interactive
Creation option for primitives is turned off by selecting Create > Polygon
Primitives > Interactive Creation and Create > NURBS Primitives > Interactive
Creation. That is, ensure a check mark does not appear beside these menu
items.
Introduction
Just as the driver of an automobile is familiar with the dashboard of their
vehicle, it is important for you to become familiar with the Maya “dashboard.”
The Maya user interface refers to everything that the Maya user sees and operates
within Maya. The menus, icons, scene views, windows, and panels comprise
the user interface.
Through the Maya user interface you access the features and operate the tools
and editors that allow you to create, animate, and render your three
dimensional objects, scenes, and effects within Maya.
As you spend time learning and working with Maya, your knowledge of and
familiarity with the user interface will increase until it becomes second nature.
In this lesson you learn how to:
■ Use the Maya interface so that you can begin to understand where and
how to access the critical tools to get started with Maya.
This first lesson contains additional explanations of the tools and concepts
compared to many of the lessons later in this manual. We suggest you take
some time to review these explanations as they lay the foundation for
understanding where things are in Maya.
Starting Maya
To start Maya on Windows
■ From the Apple Finder menu, select Go > Applications and then browse
for the Maya icon and double-click it to start Maya.
■ The panel is labeled persp at the bottom to indicate that you are viewing
the Maya scene from a perspective camera view.
■ The panel has its own menu bar at the top left corner of the panel. These
menus allow you to access tools and functions related to that specific panel.
■ The grid is displayed with two heavy lines intersecting at the center of the
Maya scene. This central location is called the origin. The origin is the center
of Maya’s 3D world, and with all object’s directional values measured from
this location.
The axis indicator shows in which direction, X, Y, or Z, you are viewing the
Maya scene. The axis indicator is color coded in the red, green, and blue color
scheme and appears in the lower left corner of a view panel.
This is extremely useful if you are new to 3D, as many of the instructions in
this manual and the Maya Help assume you know where you are viewing the
scene in relation to the X, Y, Z axes.
You switch between menu sets by choosing the appropriate module from the
menu selector on the Status Line (located directly below the File and Edit
menus). As you switch between menu sets, the right-hand portion of the
menus change, but the left-hand portion remains the same; the left-hand
menus are common menus to all menu sets. The left-hand menus contain
File, Edit, Modify, Create, Display, and Window.
2 Using the menu selector, choose Polygons from the drop-down menu.
1 Select Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation and ensure that
a check mark does not appear beside this item.
For this lesson, you won’t use this option.
2 From the Main Menu Bar, select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube >.
Maya creates a 3D cube primitive object and places it at the center (origin)
of the Maya workspace.
Status Line
The Status Line, located directly below the Main Menu bar, contains a variety
of items, most of which are used while modeling or working with objects
within Maya. Many of the Status Line items are represented by a graphical
icon. The icons save space in the Maya interface and allow for quick access to
tools used most often.
In this lesson, you learn about some of the Status Line areas.
You’ve already learned the first item on the Status line: the Menu Selector
used to select between menu sets.
For better organization on the Status Line, all of the icon buttons are broken
into groups that you can expand and collapse, as shown.
Shelf
The Shelf is located directly below the Status line. The Maya Shelf is useful for
storing tools and items that you use frequently or have customized for your
own use. You can keep the tools and items you use most frequently in a
location that provides handy access. Maya has some of the Shelf items
pre-configured for your use.
1 From the Shelf, select the Surfaces tab in order to view the tools located
on that shelf.
2 Select Create > NURBS Primitives > Interactive Creation to ensure that a
check mark does not appear beside the item.
For this lesson, you won’t use this option
3 From the Shelf, select the NURBS sphere icon located at the left end by
clicking on it.
Maya creates a sphere primitive object and places it at the center of the
Maya workspace in the same position as the cube.
TIP You can determine if this is the correct tool prior to choosing it by first
placing your mouse cursor over the icon, the name or description of it appears
in a popup window directly over it.
1 To hide the Channel Box, click the Show/Hide Channel Box icon from
the right end of the Status line.
The Channel Box disappears, and the perspective scene view expands
slightly. With the Channel Box hidden, you have more working area in
your scene view.
2 To show the Channel Box, click the Show/Hide Channel Box icon on
the Status line. The Channel Box appears in the scene view.
1 Navigate to the GettingStarted folder that was installed with your Maya
software. The location of this folder depends on the operating system
that you are using.
5 Browse for the GettingStarted folder that you pasted in your Maya
projects directory in step 3.
4 Click Save.
Maya saves your file to the scenes directory within your GettingStarted
project directory. Maya automatically saves the file with a .mb file
extension. The .mb file extension indicates that the scene was saved as a
Maya binary file: the default file type for a Maya scene.
Exiting Maya
Before you exit Maya, ensure you save any work that you want to retrieve and
continue with at a later time.
To exit Maya
■ If you have saved your scene immediately preceding the Exit command,
Maya exits.
■ If you have not recently saved your scene, a message prompt appears on
the screen asking if you want to save your changes. Click either Save, Don’t
Save, or Cancel.
Exiting Maya | 27
Beyond the lesson
In this lesson you began your orientation to Maya by learning:
■ The Maya workspace, and how it shows three dimensional space (X, Y, Z).
■ The location of the main menus for the various modules within Maya.
■ The location of the Status Line and how items are displayed as icons.
■ About the Shelf how to create a three dimensional object from the Shelf.
■ How to hide and show the Channel Box and that basic transformation,
scaling, and rotational information for an object can viewed in the Channel
Box.
As you proceed through Getting Started with Maya you should be familiar
with the fundamental concepts and skills covered in this first chapter.
If you want to learn more about a particular tool or feature that has been
presented in this lesson, refer to the Maya Help.
Introduction
■ Duplicate objects.
■ Change the viewing panels in Maya using a variety of methods so you can
view your objects from different points of view.
3 Click No.
Maya creates a new scene and delete everything that was in the previous
scene.
Primitive objects
Maya provides many types of primitive types and shapes such cubes, spheres,
cylinders, and planes.
Primitive objects can be used as a starting point for a wide variety of shapes
and forms. The most common workflow when using primitive objects is:
■ Set the construction options for the primitive when you initially create it
so that it appears in the Maya scene roughly in the size and shape that
you require.
■ Move, scale, and rotate the primitive object into its final position either
by direct manipulation (the move, scale, and rotate tools), or by entering
numeric values through an editor.
In this section, you construct the base for the temple using a polygonal cylinder
primitive. The octagonal shape is created by modifying the creation options
for the cylinder tool before you create the object. If you did not modify the
cylinder options you would create a round cylinder.
NOTE Unless otherwise indicated, the directions in this lesson for making
menu selections assume you’ve already selected the Polygons menu set.
You should also ensure that the Interactive Creation option for primitives is
first turned off by selecting Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation
to ensure the check mark does not appear beside the item.
2 From the main menu, select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder >
.
An option window appears.
3 In the Polygon Cylinder Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Radius: 10
■ Height: 1
■ Axis divisions: 8
■ Height divisions: 1
■ Cap divisions: 1
■ Axis: Y
Primitive objects | 31
NOTE You were instructed to reset the option settings as a precaution in
case they had been set differently. This is a good habit to practice when
working with tool options to avoid getting a result that was different from
what you expected.
To change the panel layout to view the base from a side view
It’s now possible to see the base from the side view, but it would be easier
to determine the position of the base if the side view were enlarged to a
full view.
2 To enlarge the side view, position the mouse cursor in the side view, and
tap the spacebar of your keyboard.
The workspace changes to a single view layout with the side view in an
enlarged view. It is easier to view the position of the base from this side
view. Notice that the base lies slightly above and below the ground plane
(X, Z).
TIP You can position your mouse cursor in any scene view and tap the
spacebar once to toggle the view. If the view is a full panel view, it will change
to a four panel view and vice versa.
The tool’s name also appears in the Help Line at the bottom of the Maya
window. The Help Line has an additional purpose: it displays summary
instructions as you use tools that require several steps.
■ With your left mouse button, click the object’s wireframe outline in the
scene view.
■ With your left mouse button, drag a bounding box around one corner or
edge of the object’s wireframe.
The object is selected when its wireframe outline color displays in a bright
green color. If it is not selected, its display color is navy blue.
2 In the side view, drag the green Y manipulator handle to move the
primitive cylinder upwards in the Y direction. Move it upwards enough
so that the bottom of the base cylinder is aligned with the X axis (the
thick dark line of the grid)
1 Display all four views by positioning the mouse cursor in the view and
tapping the spacebar of your keyboard.
The four view panel appears.
2 Position the mouse cursor in the top view and tap the spacebar once.
The top view appears in the workspace.
3 With the base cylinder selected, choose the Rotate tool from the Toolbox.
A rotate manipulator icon appears over the primitive cylinder in the scene
view.
4 In the top view, drag the green Y manipulator ring to rotate the primitive
cylinder so that one of the facets of the base cylinder is aligned with the
grid as shown in the image below.
You may be asking yourself the question “How do I know if I’ve rotated
the base exactly 22.5 degrees?” You can check the accuracy of the rotation
by viewing the Channel Box. Rotate Y should be close to 22.5 degrees.
TIP You can undo and redo the last action you performed. Undo reverses
the last action you performed on a selected object. It also reverses any action
you performed from the Edit Menu.
To undo an action select, Edit > Undo, Redo, Repeat. Maya allows you to
perform multiple undos.
2 In the Channel Box, adjust the attribute values so they match the above
image by clicking in the field and entering the correct numerical values.
This accurately positions the base in your Maya scene.
Maya named the cylinder primitive when it was first created. Rename
the cylinder to something more meaningful to your project.
1 In the Channel Box, click in the field with the name pCylinder1.
2 Rename the primitive object by typing the new name: templeBase and
then pressing Enter.
1 Display all four views by positioning the mouse cursor in the view and
tapping the spacebar. Then click in the perspective view to display the
base in this view.
2 With templeBase selected, choose Edit > Duplicate Special > from the
main menu.
The Duplicate Special Options window appears.
Duplicating objects | 39
3 In the Duplicate Special Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Translate: 0 1.0 0
■ Rotate: 0 0 0
2 Within the GettingStarted project directory, ensure that you are saving
in the scenes sub-directory.
4 Click Save.
■ Where the primitive object tools are located in the main menu.
■ How to create a primitive object as well as reset and edit its creation
options.
■ How to change between a single view and four view panel layout using
layout shortcuts and by tapping the spacebar of your keyboard.
■ How to move and rotate objects using the transformation tools in the
Toolbox.
■ Creating other primitive object types, with various options so that you
can understand the variations that are possible.
■ Practice moving, rotating, and scaling objects, and changing between the
various scene views (single perspective, four view, single side, single top
etc.)
Introduction
In the previous lesson you learned how to view your 3D scene by changing
between single and four view layouts. It is important for you to learn how to
change your views in a more interactive manner so that you can: view your
objects close up or far away, select objects more accurately, or view objects
from different angles in your perspective view.
In this lesson you learn how to:
■ Understand the difference between moving objects in the scene and moving
the point of view on the scene.
■ Use the dolly, track, and tumble camera tools to change the view of your
scene in both the orthographic and perspective views.
Camera tools
In the lessons so far, when you looked at an object from the top, front, or side
views you have been viewing the scene through an orthographic view.
Orthographic views appear two-dimensional because the object is displayed
using parallel projections of only two axes at a time. (Scooter images courtesy
of The Art of Maya)
When you view the scene through the perspective view, you are viewing the
scene in a three-dimensional manner. The perspective view simulates what
your scene would look like from a camera’s point of view.
In Maya, you view the scene through a set of virtual cameras. These cameras
are either orthographic or perspective in nature. You can adjust how these
cameras view the scene using the Camera Tools.
The three primary methods for manipulating the camera view are dolly, tumble,
and track.
Camera tools | 43
Dolly Tool
The Dolly Tool gets its name from filmmaking where a camera, mounted on
a wheeled tripod, is moved towards or away from the scene. In Maya, dollying
allows you to view the items in your scene either close up or from further
back.
■ (Mac OS X) Press the Option key and drag the mouse to the right
while holding down the right button on your mouse.
3 To dolly the camera outwards from the subject in the scene you can
perform the same key and mouse combinations as described above but
drag the mouse to the left.
Dolly works in both the perspective and orthographic views.
TIP If you make an error when adjusting your camera view of the scene, you
can reset the camera to its default home setting.
To reset the camera view for a particular orthographic or perspective view:
From the panel menu, select View > Default Home.
➤ Press the Alt key (Windows & Linux) or the Option key (Mac OS X) and
drag the mouse either left or right, or up or down, while holding down
the left button on your mouse.
Tumbling the view revolves the camera around the center of the scene
view, in whichever direction you drag (left, right, up or down). The
Tumble Tool does not work in the orthographic views.
Track Tool
The Track Tool allows you to move the camera up, down, or sideways in
relation to the scene.
Camera tools | 45
To track the perspective view
➤ Press the Alt key (Windows & Linux) or the Option key (Mac OS X) and
drag the mouse in any direction, while holding down the middle button
on your mouse.
The Track Tool works for both orthographic and perspective views.
NOTE Even though the objects appear to move across the screen when
operating any of these camera tools, it is the viewing camera that is actually
moved in relation to the scene, not the objects.
Workflow overview
The columns are made up of multiple primitives that are moved, scaled, and
rotated into position. Once the first column is created, with each component
named and accurately positioned, you will group and duplicate it to create
others.
1 From the Main Menu, select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube > .
■ Height: 0.6
■ Depth: 1.75
NOTE If the Polygon Cube Options window does not appear, ensure that
the Interactive Creation option for primitives is turned off by first selecting
Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation so that a check mark does
not appear beside this menu item.
4 In the side view, move the cube upwards (Y axis) so it rests on the top
surface of the temple base.
You can do this using the Move Tool or with the Channel Box. If you
use the Channel Box, enter a Translate Y value of 2.3.
You may find it useful to dolly or tumble the scene view to obtain a better
viewpoint.
1 From the main menu, select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cylinder >
.
Workflow overview | 47
2 In the Polygon Cylinder Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Radius: 0.5
■ Height: 6
■ Axis divisions: 12
4 In side view, move the cylinder upwards (Y axis) so it rests on the top
surface of columnPedestal.
You can do this using the Move Tool or with the Channel Box. If you
use the Channel Box, enter a Translate Y value of 5.6.
The capital for the column rests on top of the column and is very similar to
the pedestal. You duplicate the pedestal and position the duplicate at the top
of the column.
1 With only columnPedestal selected, select Edit > Duplicate Special >
from the main menu.
The Duplicate Special Options window appears.
2 In the Duplicate Special Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Translate: 0 6.6 0
NOTE If you positioned the geometry for the column using the Transform
Tools and your mouse, the Y translate values may be incorrect for your
particular model. You may want to continue positioning the objects by visual
reference using your mouse.
The base for the column rests on top of the pedestal. You will create the base
using one half of a NURBS sphere primitive and then move and rotate it into
position. You will do this by modifying the creation options for the sphere
primitive.
2 In the NURBS Sphere Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Start Sweep Angle: 0
■ Radius: 0.75
Workflow overview | 49
■ Number of Sections: 8
■ Number of Spans: 4
The sphere needs to be rotated 90 degrees and then positioned on top of the
pedestal.
1 In side view, rotate the sphere so that the dome part is pointing up.
This is accomplished by either of the following methods:
■ Rotating the sphere about the X axis using the Rotate Tool’s
manipulator handle.
3 Using the Scale Tool, scale the sphere along its Z axis (blue manipulator
handle) so that the sphere becomes slightly squashed in appearance.
When you scale an object non-uniformly along one of its axes, you are
scaling it non-proportionally.
Change the display of your scene so that the objects display as shaded objects.
1 Enlarge your perspective view, and dolly and tumble the scene so you
can easily view what you’ve completed so far.
2 From the panel menu, select Shading > Smooth Shade All.
The objects in your scene display in an opaque dark gray color. You can
work with objects in either shaded or unshaded mode for the balance of
this lesson.
1 Select the four objects that comprise the column simultaneously by doing
one of the following:
■ With your left mouse button, shift-click each object in turn until the
four objects are selected in the scene view.
■ With your left mouse button, drag one large bounding box around
the column objects in an orthographic view.
3 In the Group Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and then set
the following options:
■ Group Under: Parent
1 From the view menu, select Panels > Layouts > Two Panes Stacked.
The scene view splits into two viewing panels - each has their own separate
view menu. You will set these to view the scene in the upper view and
the Hypergraph in the other.
2 From the lower pane menu, select Panels > Hypergraph Panel >
Hypergraph Hierarchy.
The Hypergraph panel will display below the scene view panel.
3 At the top of the Hypergraph panel, select the Scene Hierarchy icon to
ensure the Hypergraph is displaying the scene hierarchy.
The Hypergraph | 53
Some nodes display with a line connecting them. This denotes that they
are in a hierarchy and have a dependency structure based on how they
were originally grouped.
For the temple’s column objects, the hierarchy displays each of the named
objects under a node labelled group1. Group1 is the parent node for this
hierarchy of objects.
In Maya, when the parent node (sometimes referred to as the root node)
is moved, rotated, or scaled in any way, the child nodes (sometimes
referred to as the leaf nodes) underneath are also affected.
When you select objects at the top level of a hierarchy and move them,
the objects within the hierarchy or group follow.
NOTE This system of nodes, attributes, and hierarchies may initially appear
somewhat complex, but it is one of the most powerful features of Maya. The
node based architecture provides flexibility and power to create complex
models, shaders, and animations.
2 In the Hypergraph, right-click the top node representing group1 and select
Rename from the pop-up menu.
A small text box appears in the node.
Now that the column is grouped, you need to position it at one corner of the
temple base.
2 In the Hypergraph, select the Column at the top node so that Column
becomes active in the scene view.
3 In the scene view, use the Move Tool to position Column at the front
corner of the temple base as shown below.
With your first column in position, you can now create a copy of the column
and position it on the adjacent corner of the base.
1 With Column still selected in the Hypergraph, select Edit > Duplicate
Special > from the main menu.
The Duplicate Special Options window appears.
2 In the Duplicate Special Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Number of Copies: 1
The Hypergraph | 55
in the same position as the original. The two objects are on top of each
other.
You need to move the column into position on the adjacent corner of the
temple base.
2 In the scene view, use the Move Tool to position Column1 on the adjacent
corner of the temple base as shown below.
TIP If you set the selection mask, it will remain that way until you change it again.
If an item won’t select for you in Maya, you should check the selection mask setting
to see if it is set correctly.
Select by hierarchy ensures that when you select items they are selected
at their parent or root node.
3 In the scene view, shift-click Column and Column1 so they are selected
simultaneously. (Do not be concerned that they highlight in different
colors.)
Pivot points
A pivot point is a specific position in 3D space that is used as a reference for
the transformations of objects. All objects (curves, surfaces, groups) have pivot
points.
When you group objects in Maya, a new node called a parent node is created
for the group of objects. The pivot point for the group’s parent node is placed
at the origin (0, 0, 0). This is useful if you later want to duplicate and rotate
the objects radially (that is, in a circular fashion around the pivot).
Pivot points | 57
To group the two columns
3 In the Group Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings. Set the
following options:
■ Group Under: Parent
With the two columns grouped, you then duplicate the columns with a
rotation option, the groups will duplicate and rotate around the pivot point
at the origin (0, 0, 0).
1 With column group selected, select Edit > Duplicate Special > from
the main menu.
2 In the Duplicate Special Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Rotate: 0 90 0
■ Number of Copies: 3
1 To save your Maya scene, select File > Save Scene As.
2 Type Lesson3Columns in the file browser area reserved for file names.
3 Click Save.
■ Use your mouse to change the view of your scene using the dolly, track,
and tumble camera tools in both the orthographic and perspective views.
■ Rotate objects using the transformation tools in the Toolbox and the
Channel Box.
■ Access the Hypergraph to view nodes and hierarchies. You are also learning
that many tasks in Maya can be completed or approached using multiple
techniques.
■ Use the group pivot point to your advantage when duplicating objects.
Before proceeding with the next lesson you may want to review the material
presented in this lesson so you are familiar with the concepts and skills
associated with them. Some suggested tasks you can try on your own include:
■ Practice using the view camera tools (dolly, track, and tumble) so you can
navigate within the scene views efficiently.
Introduction
Working with components is an important part of the workflow when working
in Maya. Components describe objects at a more detailed level. As you edit
the components of your classic temple, you will learn more about what is
possible in Maya.
In this lesson you learn how to:
Template display
When your scene becomes complex, templating the display of some of the
objects in your scene allows you to more easily select only the objects you
want. When you template the display of an object, its wireframe changes to
a gray color. The object(s) can still be seen, but not easily selected. This helps
to prevent you from selecting or modifying it accidentally. You can change
the display of objects to a template and use them as a modeling reference (the
way a grid is used).
You need to change the display of the base and columns to template mode
so that you can more easily work on the temple roof.
1 In the side view, with the Selection Mask set to Hierarchy, select all the
objects in your scene.
2 From the main menu, select Display > Object Display > Template.
The selected objects become templated.
For your classic temple, you need to create the entablature using a torus
primitive. An entablature is a structure that lies horizontally upon the columns
of a temple and supports the roof.
1 From the main menu, select Create > NURBS Primitives > Torus > .
2 In the NURBS Torus Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Radius: 8.5
■ Number of Sections: 24
NOTE If the NURBS Primitives Options window does not appear, ensure that
a check mark does not appear beside the Interactive Creation menu item
before selecting Create > NURBS Primitives > Torus > by first selecting
Create > NURBS Primitives > Interactive Creation.
Template display | 61
Components
All objects in Maya have a transform and a shape node. Geometric shapes,
like the primitives in this tutorial, have smaller parts called components. A few
examples of components in Maya are control vertices, faces, and hulls.
Components allow you to work with objects at a finer level and allow you to
edit them in creative ways.
In order to change the shape of the entablature beyond the basic scale
transformations, you need to modify its component information.
4 Drag a selection box around the top row of vertices so they become
selected.
5 Using the Move Tool, move the vertices up vertically as shown below to
change the shape of Entablature.
The roof for the temple rests on top of the entablature. The roof for the temple
is created using one half of a sphere primitive.
2 In the NURBS Sphere Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings and
then set the following options:
■ Start Sweep Angle: 0
■ Radius: 8.75
■ Number of Sections: 8
Components | 63
■ Number of Spans: 4
The roof needs to be rotated -90 degrees about the X axis and positioned on
top of the entablature.
1 In side view, rotate the roof so that the dome part is pointing up.
3 Scale the roof along its Z axis (blue manipulator handle) so that the sphere
becomes slightly squashed in appearance.
Now that the roof is complete, you can untemplate the templated objects.
To untemplate objects
4 From the main menu, select Display > Object Display > Untemplate.
2 To view the Attribute Editor, click the Show/Hide icon on the Status Line.
The Attribute Editor displays the attributes for templeRoof. The various
attributes for the templeRoof object appear under various tabs. Each tab
represents a node.
6 The last two nodes are initialShadingGroup and lambert1. If you can’t
see them, click the display arrow.
The initialShadingGroup and lambert1 nodes are default nodes that relate
to the default shading material for an object. Maya uses them to establish
the initial color of objects and other settings related to shading. If you
create your own shading materials for the temple, as you will in the
following steps, these nodes are replaced by the new shading nodes you
create.
This changes the selection mask back to objects so you can select objects
in the scene. It is a shortcut to access this feature.
2 Drag a selection box around all the objects in your scene to select them.
TIP If objects won’t select in the Maya scene, check that your selection mask
is set correctly on the Status Line.
3 From the Status Line, select the Rendering menu set using the menu
selector.
The main menu changes to display the menu set for Rendering.
4 From the main menu, select Lighting/Shading > Assign New Material >
Blinn.
A Blinn shading material is assigned to all the objects in the scene and
the Attribute Editor updates. Blinn shading materials (named after the
Surface materials | 67
inventor of this shading algorithm) provide for high-quality specular
highlights on surfaces.
With a shading material assigned to all the objects, you need to edit the color
attributes of the templeShader material.
1 In the Attribute Editor, click in the gray box to the right of the word
Color.
4 In the Attribute Editor menu, choose the Selected menu item, and select
templeBase from the list.
2 Type Lesson4Final in the file browser area reserved for file names, and
then click Save.
■ Select objects at their component level using selection masks and the right
mouse button.
■ Assign and edit shading materials for your objects in the scene.
■ Access the Attribute editor and view the various node types for objects.
As you proceed through Getting Started with Maya, we assume you are familiar
with the fundamental concepts and skills covered in this first chapter.
Before proceeding to the next chapter you may want to review the material
presented in this lesson so you are familiar with the concepts and skills
associated with them. Some suggested tasks you may want to do on your own:
■ Learn more about the tools and options that have been presented in this
lesson, by referring to the Maya Help. To view the Maya Help, select Help
> Maya Help.
In Maya, modeling refers to the process of creating virtual 3D surfaces for the
characters and objects in the Maya scene. Surfaces are vital for creating a
convincing 3D image.
Modeling is a process requiring keen visual skills and mastery of the modeling
tools. The more accurate you are when modeling your forms in terms of size,
shape, detail, and proportion, the more convincing your final scene will be.
There are three modeling surface types in Maya:
■ Polygons
■ NURBS
■ Subdivision surfaces.
71
Polygon surfaces are a network of three-or-more sided flat surfaces called faces
that get connected together to create a poly mesh. Polygon meshes are
comprised of vertices, faces, and edges.
The wireframe lines on the mesh represent the edges of each face. The regions
bounded by the edges are faces. Where the edges intersect each other is the
location of a point called a vertex.
When a polygon mesh is rendered, its edges can be set to appear hard or
smooth. As a result, polygons can easily represent both flat as well as curved
3D forms. You’ll work with these component types continuously when
modeling with polygons.
Polygonal surfaces have a wide range of applications and are the preferred
surface type for many 3D applications including interactive games and web
development applications.
Polygonal surfaces can be described with the smallest amount of data of all
the 3D surface types, and therefore, can be rendered quickly, delivering
increased speed and interactive performance to the end user in games and
other applications.
2 Make sure Construction History (below the menu bar) is on: . (If it
is turned off, the icon has a large X across it).
4 Make sure Display > UI Elements > Help Line is turned on.
You will use the Help Line while modeling.
5 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
7 Make sure that Soft Selection is turned off by opening the Tool Settings
Editor with the Select Tool active and unchecking the box marked Soft
Select.
Introduction
In this lesson, you model a helmet for an interactive game character, using
polygonal surface modeling techniques.
In this lesson you’ll be introduced to some of the polygon modeling tools
Maya provides by learning how to:
■ Work with the components of a polygon mesh (faces, edges, and vertices)
■ Edge Width: 4
The Whole face setting lets you select polygon faces by clicking anywhere
on the face (the Center setting requires you to click on the face’s center
6 Turn off the Interactive Creation option for primitives: Select Create >
Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation (no check mark).
1 In the Toolbox, click the Four View shortcut from the Layout Shortcuts
bar.
The perspective view is located in the top right corner and the other views
show your scene from the top, front, and side.
2 In the front view panel menu, select View > Image Plane > Import Image.
5 In the side view panel menu, select View > Image Plane > Import Image.
NOTE The front and side images for this lesson were created so that the two
views are aligned and the height of each image is identical. When you import
them as image planes, they appear at the same scale. These are important
considerations when you construct your own reference images in the future.
Otherwise, your reference images may not align or may be at different scales
between the two orthographic views.
1 In the front view panel menu, select View > Select Camera.
The camera for the front orthographic view is selected.
2 Display the Channel Box by clicking the Show/Hide Channel Box icon
on the Status Line.
The Channel Box displays the keyable attributes for the Front
orthographic camera.
3 In the Inputs section, click the ImagePlane1 name to display the attributes
for the image plane.
5 In the side view panel menu, select the camera and change the Alpha
Gain setting for the side view image plane exactly as you changed the
front view image plane.
TIP You can change the Alpha Gain at any time if you want the image planes
to appear more or less transparent.
3 In the options window, select Edit > Reset Settings, and then set the
following:
■ Width: 14
■ Height: 14
■ Depth: 14
■ Width divisions: 1
■ Height divisions: 2
■ Depth divisions: 1
You can smooth the cube so it appears more rounded on the corners and
subdivide it into smaller faces using the Smooth feature.
1 With the cube still selected in the scene view, select Mesh > Smooth >
, and set the following options in the window that appears:
■ Add divisions: Exponentially
■ Division levels: 2
The polygon faces are still four-sided even though their shape and position
have been modified by the smooth operation.
NOTE If the top, domed portion of the smoothed cube doesn’t roughly
match the helmet sketches as indicated in the image below, scale the cube
with the Scale Tool to make it match.
➤ With the cube still selected, rename the cube primitive using the Channel
Box from pCube1 to helmetmesh.
1 In the perspective view, right-click on the helmet mesh and select Object
Mode from the marking menu that appears.
This changes the selection mode to Objects.
3 In the perspective view, select Shading > Smooth Shade All from the panel
menu.
The helmet mesh displays in smooth shaded mode.
The opacity of the smooth shading in the side and front views prevents you
from seeing the image planes behind the object. X-Ray display mode solves
this problem by making the smooth shaded surface appear semitransparent.
1 With the helmet still selected, choose the following from the side view’s
panel menu:
■ Shading > Smooth Shade All
Model symmetry
Whenever you model an object, you should take advantage of any symmetry
that the form provides. It can save you time and effort if you work on only
one half of the model and then later copy it across the model’s axis of
symmetry. The sketch of the helmet is symmetrical along its center line (YZ
plane).
1 In the top view, right-click on the mesh and select Face from the marking
menu that appears.
2 Drag a bounding box around the faces on the left half of the helmet mesh
to select them.
3 In the side view, paint select the faces that appear along the front and
lower areas of the mesh (see image) by dragging the mouse over the faces.
NOTE The Paint Selection Tool only selects components on the mesh that
face towards the camera.
1 Right-click the mesh and select Edge from the marking menu that appears.
Maya’s component selection mode is set to edges.
3 On the Status Line, turn on the Snap to Grids feature by clicking the icon.
Snap to Grids lets you move selected components to the closest grid line
or grid intersection point. When many components are selected, you can
align them to each other via the grid simultaneously.
4 In the Toolbox, double-click the Move Tool to display its tool settings.
5 In the Move Snap Settings, turn off the Retain component spacing setting.
7 On the Status Line, turn off the Snap to Grids feature by clicking its icon.
8 With the Move Tool still active in the top view, drag the manipulator
arrow upwards a short distance so the edge loop is positioned roughly at
its original location (which should be at the second grid line below the
X axis).
9 Using the steps described above, align the other edge loop that appears
above the X axis and then align the edge loop directly to the right of the
Z axis. (Remember to turn on and off Snap to Grids as required.)
When you have finished, the edge loops nearest the X and Z axes are
aligned. (see image below)
1 Right-click the helmet and select Vertex from the marking menu that
appears.
2 In the side view, select the pair of vertices at the rear lower edge (see
image) by dragging a bounding box around them.
4 In the side view, click-drag the blue arrow on the Move Tool manipulator
towards the right until the vertices are repositioned so that your helmet
matches the reference sketch on the image plane.
By moving the vertex as well as the vertex adjacent to it along the axis
of symmetry, you ensure that the symmetrical shape of the helmet is
maintained. If you move one vertex independently of the other it may
result in an unwanted bump or valley in the mesh. These types of
anomalies will become more apparent when you copy the completed
half of the mesh across the axis of symmetry.
5 Repeat steps 2 through 4 for the other pairs of vertices on the rear of the
helmet. Ensure that the edge loops appear smooth in relation to each
other.
When you have finished, the back region of the helmet should closely
match the reference image on your image plane.
TIP You can click in the center of the Move Tool manipulator to drag a vertex
selection freely.
Next, you’ll reposition the border edges that lie along the bottom edge of the
mesh. You can select these edge types using the Select Border Edge Tool.
1 In the side view, select the lowest horizontal edge loop on the helmet by
choosing Select > Select Border Edge Toolfrom the main menu, and then
2 Using the Move Tool, drag the selected edge loop downwards until the
left hand vertex roughly matches the lower edge indicated in the reference
sketch.
3 In the side view, select and reposition the remaining vertices individually
on the edge loop using the Move Tool so they match the reference sketch.
2 In the side view, click the first border edge that will be used as the upper
edge of the face shield, then click the last border edge (see image).
The border edges in between are selected.
5 With the border edges still selected, click the Move Tool again and drag
the green manipulator upwards to match the location of the border edges
in the reference sketch.
At this point in the lesson, the outline of your helmet should roughly match
the helmet in the side view reference image. If it doesn’t, review the earlier
steps in this lesson and make any adjustments to your polygonal mesh as
required.
If you view your helmet in the front orthographic view, you’ll notice that the
helmet shows a wider profile from this view than the reference sketch. In the
next steps you’ll correct this using the front and top orthographic views of
the helmet for reference.
3 In the front view, move these vertices to the left until they match the
widest area of the helmet in the reference sketch (see image).
When you view your helmet from the top orthographic view the region
between the side and rear of the helmet appears a bit flat in relation to the
other areas. To correct this you can move the other vertices in this region
outwards in a similar fashion so the curvature in this area appears fuller and
more rounded. However, viewing only from the orthographic views can be
limiting, and you should also use the perspective view to examine the mesh.
2 Dolly and tumble the perspective view while you closely examine the
helmet mesh.
As you examine the vertices along any particular edge loop, the vertices on
the mesh should appear to cascade in a smooth gradual fashion to create the
curvature of the mesh with no undesirable spikes or dips.
Ensuring that the mesh appears relatively smooth at various stages throughout
the modeling process will reduce the possibility for issues when you create a
high resolution version of the mesh later on.
If you find areas where one vertex (or more) appears to protrude outwards (or
recedes) on the mesh in relation to neighboring vertices, you can correct these
protruding regions by repositioning the affected vertices in the perspective
view.
1 Dolly and tumble the perspective view while examining the mesh until
you find vertices that protrude outwards from the mesh in an unwanted
fashion.
3 In the Move Settings editor, in the Move section, turn on the Normal
option.
The U and V handles slide the vertex in relation to its associated edges,
while the N handle moves the vertex either away or towards the mesh
depending on the direction you move your mouse.
6 Repeat the above steps for any other protruding or receding vertices on
the mesh until you are satisfied that the mesh appears smooth.
7 Before you proceed to the next section, double-click on the Move Tool
and return the Move setting to the default World setting.
If you examine your model in the perspective view your helmet mesh should
now match the reference sketches as they appear in both the front and side
image planes (see image below). The mesh should also have a relatively uniform
distribution of polygon faces on the mesh and the edge loops should flow
smoothly.
Drawing a polygon
To create the lower front region of the helmet (that is, the region that would
protect the mouth and jaw of the wearer) you’ll create a polygon for the cross
section of the lower front region by manually placing vertices using the Create
Polygon Tool (Mesh > Create Polygon Tool).
1 In the side view, select Mesh > Create Polygon Tool > .
The Create Polygon Tool settings editor appears.
Drawing a polygon | 95
■ Limit points to: 6
These settings specify that a closed polygon face will be created once you
have placed six vertices in the scene.
3 In the side view, place six points for the profile as it appears in cross
section of the lower front region of the helmet (see image below). Ensure
that you place the vertices in a counter-clockwise direction for this step.
The new polygon face is created along the YZ plane (the axis of symmetry
for the model).
4 Press the q key to quit the Create Polygon Tool when the polygon face
is complete.
The new polygon component remains selected in Object Mode.
NOTE If the polygon face doesn’t appear shaded in the side view but does
appear shaded in the perspective view, it means that the polygon face and
the image plane lie on exactly the same plane. You can correct this by moving
the image plane backwards in the side view so it doesn’t lie directly on the
YZ plane, but this step is not critical to the success of the steps that follow.
You’ll extrude this polygon face to create the remainder of the lower front
region of the helmet. Before you can extrude the new face it needs to be
selected in Face mode. You can do this quickly by converting the existing
selection to Faces.
➤ With the face still active in Object Mode, choose Select > Convert
Selection > To Faces.
TIP You can also press Ctrl + F11 or Ctrl + right-click on the selected object
and choose To Faces > To Faces from the marking menu that appears.
■ Create the lower front region of the helmet by extruding the polygon face
you created in the last section of the lesson.
■ Extrude edges around the face shield and along the lower bottom edge.
2 With the polygon face still selected, choose Edit Mesh > Extrude.
The extrude manipulator appears on the selected face.
3 In the perspective view, drag the blue arrow on the manipulator to extrude
a section of mesh out from the face (positive X) a distance of
approximately one half a grid unit (see image).
TIP As you change the angle of rotation and extrude the mesh you can also
momentarily switch between the move or scale manipulators to fine tune
the position and scale of each section as you extrude it.
6 Press the g key once again and create a third extruded region using the
manipulator to move, rotate, or scale the extruded segment of the mesh
so you position it correctly when compared to the reference sketch (see
image). You may also want to view the extrusion from either the top or
front view to ensure your extrusion doesn’t extend outwards more than
the side region.
1 Tumble the perspective view until you can view the inside of the lower
front region (see image below).
2 Select the faces that appear on the inside of the mesh you just extruded,
including the faces on either end of the extrusion.
These faces were required for creating the extruded portions of the lower
region but are not needed beyond this point.
When you are finished, a gap will exist between the last extruded segment
of the lower region and the helmet mesh.
You’ll combine these separate meshes together and then create a mesh that
bridges between them in the next section of the lesson. To prepare for the
1 In the perspective view, select the lower edges of the helmet mesh using
Select > Select Border Edge Tool.
2 Select Edit Mesh > Extrude, then drag the blue arrow manipulator in a
direction towards the inside of the helmet to create a row of edges that
are perpendicular to the selected bottom edges. Extrude these edges a
distance that is approximately one grid unit in depth (see image below).
1 In the perspective view, select the upper and side edges on the helmet
mesh using Select > Select Border Edge Tool (see image below).
2 Select Edit Mesh > Extrude and then drag the blue arrow on the extrude
manipulator in a direction towards the inside of the helmet to create
edges that are perpendicular to the top and side edges of the face shield.
Extrude these edges a distance that is approximately one grid unit in
depth (see image below).
1 In the perspective view, right-click on the helmet and select vertex mode
to change the selection type to vertices.
2 Select the four vertices on the lower front region of the helmet that are
near the axis of symmetry (see image below) and using the Move Tool,
move the selected vertices upwards by dragging the green arrow on the
Move Tool manipulator so that the lower front region of the helmet
matches the reference sketches as they appear in the various orthographic
views.
3 Adjust any vertices on the lower region that may require minor
repositioning by selecting and moving them as necessary.
■ the edges to be bridged are in the same polygon mesh. That is, you must
combine the two meshes into one using the Combine feature, before you
perform the bridge.
■ you select an equal number of border edges on either side of the region to
be bridged.
1 In the perspective view, right-click the mesh and select Object Mode from
the marking menu that appears.
2 Select the helmet mesh, and then shift-select the lower front mesh, so
both meshes are selected.
The edge of the mesh on the lower front region of the helmet is comprised
of five edges. The corresponding region on the side region of the helmet only
has three. You can increase the number of edges on the lower side region by
3 In the perspective view, click-drag the edge on the side region of the
helmet near the bottom of the edge as indicated in the image below.
Without releasing the mouse button, drag the mouse upwards about one
third of the distance along the edge and then release the mouse button
to insert the edge loop.
NOTE Click-dragging an edge when using the Relative option inserts an edge
loop that closely matches the existing edge layout on the mesh. That is, the
lower region of the mesh is much wider near the front than at the rear. The
Relative setting adjusts the position of the edge loop locator based on this
topology so is ideal in these situations. When you click-drag using the Relative
option, remember to click near the edge whose layout you want the edge
loop to match.
4 With the Insert Edge Loop Tool still active, click-drag the side region of
the helmet near the top of the same edge and insert a second edge loop
about two thirds of the distance along the edge.
To bridge between the lower front and side region of the helmet
1 Choose Select > Select Border Edge Tool and then click the border edges
on both the lower front as well as the side region of the mesh where you
want the bridging mesh to be constructed. (You should have five edges
selected on either side).
TIP When you select border edges using the Select Border Edge Tool you
can click on the first and last edge in a series on one side of the bridge and
the tool will select the edges in between.
3 In the Bridge Options window, set the Divisions to 0, then click the Bridge
button to create the bridge.
4 Press the q key to return to select mode, and click anywhere off the mesh
to unselect the edges.
NOTE If your bridge appears to twist or cross over itself it indicates that the
two meshes have their surface normals mismatched. In this particular case it
likely indicates that you did not create the original profile shape for the lower
front by placing the six vertices in a counter-clockwise direction.
If this occurs you must undo your steps to the point immediately before you
combined the two meshes and then reverse the surface normals on only the
lower front section by selecting it and then selecting Normals > Reverse. You
can then redo the instructions in this section as required.
1 Tumble the perspective view so you can see all of the edges surrounding
the area for the face shield.
If the planar option is on, the Append to Polygon Tool will not create a
multi-sided polygon as the edges you’ll select do not form a planar region.
4 In the perspective view, click once on the top inner border edge of the
helmet mesh to indicate which mesh you are appending to, and then
click the same edge a second time to begin the append operation (see
image below).
5 Click the bottom edge of the face shield that is opposite the first edge
you just clicked.
A polygon appears that spans the two edges.
7 When you are finished clicking the perimeter border edges for the face
shield, press the q key to quit the tool.
The multi-sided polygon is completed and added to the existing mesh.
Multi-sided polygons are also referred to as n-gons.
These settings let you begin and end your split at a location that
corresponds exactly with an edge and lets you snap to the midpoint and
ends of the edge you select. (The number of points setting of 1 ensures
this). These settings will help to ensure that the faces you split align
exactly and that the four-sided topology of the mesh is maintained.
4 Click-drag the top inner edge of the face shield to indicate the start of
the split (see image below). Drag the mouse to position the vertex until
it stops at the right side of the edge.
5 Click-drag on the lower inner edge of the helmet mesh to indicate the
end of the split (see image). Drag the mouse to the right until the vertex
stops at the right side of the edge.
7 Press the g key to select the Split Polygon Tool again, and then continue
to split the face shield vertically at the other locations specified in the
image below. Remember to press the y key after each split and then the
g key to select the tool again.
When you are finished the n-gon for the face shield will be split into four
or five new polygons (depending on how you've constructed your mesh).
One polygon on the side of the face shield will still be five-sided. To correct
this, you'll also split the face shield horizontally. Splitting the face shield
horizontally will also let you modify its shape afterwards.
1 In the perspective view, with the Split Polygon Tool still active, click-drag
the inner side edge (see image) to indicate the start location for the
horizontal split.
2 In the side view, click-drag the front vertical border edge of the face shield
(this border edge lies on the axis of symmetry) and release the mouse
button at the mid-point along the edge where the vertex naturally snaps
(as if a magnet were attracting it towards that location).
In the next steps you'll reposition some of the vertices along the horizontal
split to make the face shield protrude outwards a small amount.
1 In the side view, select the middle two vertices at the front of the face
shield and use the Move Tool to move the vertices outwards (+Z) a small
amount (see image).
2 In the perspective view, select the remaining middle vertices on the face
shield one at a time and reposition them outwards a small distance using
the Move Tool with the Move Setting option set to Normal.
3 Reset the Move Tool's Move Settings to World before continuing to the
next steps.
To create the diagonal grill vents on the lower front of the helmet you’ll insert
edges on the face, reposition some of the vertices, and then extrude some of
the faces.
2 In the Insert Edge Loop Tool Options window, set the following:
■ Multiple Edge Loops: On
These settings let you insert four evenly spaced edges on the face where
you want the grill vents to appear.
3 In the perspective view, click the border edge of the face where the grill
vents will appear and then click the edge directly opposite that border
edge (see image).
6 Press the q key to exit the tool and return to selection mode.
To make the grill vents appear diagonally you’ll select the vertices on the right
side and then slide them downwards using the Move Tool.
1 Right-click the helmet mesh and change the selection mode to Vertex.
2 Select the vertices on the right side of the grill feature (see image below).
3 Double-click the Move Tool icon to display the Move Tool’s settings
editor.
4 In the Move Tools’ settings editor, click the Set to Edge button.
The vertices appear unselected temporarily. The Move Tool expects you
to select an edge it will reference for the axis of movement.
5 Click an edge that is on the same line of the edges as the vertices you
selected.
The Move Tool manipulator appears and is aligned to the edge you
selected. The vertices appear selected again indicating that the Move Tool
is now set to move those vertices along the axis defined by the edge you
selected.
NOTE Make sure you do not move the vertices so that the lowest vertex
touches the corner vertices or you’ll create an edge that has zero length.
8 Before proceeding to the next section, double-click the Move Tool and
reset the tool settings by clicking the Reset Tool button.
To make the grill vents three-dimensional, you’ll extrude some of the thin
diagonal faces inwards.
1 Right-click the helmet mesh and change the selection mode to Face.
2 Beginning at the bottom of the grill feature, shift-select the two diagonal
faces as indicated in the image below.
4 Drag the blue arrow on the Extrude manipulator towards the helmet a
short distance to create the two recessed vents for the grill.
2 In the perspective view, click-drag on the top side edge of the top grill
vent. Drag your mouse so the vertex is positioned at the bottom of the
edge (see image).
3 Click-drag on the top edge of the multi-sided polygon and slide the vertex
to the right end of the edge (see image).
5 Split the side edge on the bottom grill vent in a similar fashion by
click-dragging your mouse so the vertex is positioned at the top of the
edge (see image below).
1 Right-click the mesh and change the selection mode to Object, and select
the helmet mesh.
2 Display the Channel Box if it isn’t already, and notice the list of history
nodes that appear in the Inputs section.
To ensure that the border vertices lie along the axis of symmetry
1 Enlarge the front view so you can view the vertices that lie along the axis
of symmetry.
If any vertices on the mesh protrude across the Y axis, you’ll need to snap
these to the Y axis using the Move Tool in combination with the Snap
to grids feature.
NOTE Any vertices that protrude across the Y axis likely occurred as a result
of an earlier extrude operation. Because the extrude feature extrudes
components based on the face normal, a few vertices may have moved across
the axis of symmetry.
2 In the front view, select all of the vertices that should lie along the axis
of symmetry (Y axis) using a bounding box selection.
4 In the Toolbox, double-click the Move Tool to display its tool settings
and ensure that the Retain component spacing setting is turned off.
5 In the front view, click-drag the red arrow on the Move Tool manipulator
to the right a small distance.
The vertices immediately snap to the grid line to the right. They initially
will not be positioned at the location you want, but you’ll notice that all
of the vertices you selected are now aligned to each other.
6 Drag the manipulator towards the left until the vertices snap to the Y
axis.
1 Right-click the mesh, change the selection mode to Object, and then
select the helmet mesh.
2 Select Mesh > Mirror Geometry > , set the following options, and then
click the Mirror button.
■ Mirror Direction: -X
■ Merge vertices: On
The mesh is copied along -X to create the opposite half of the model.
The two meshes are combined into one and vertices are merged so they
become shared.
At this point, the low resolution version of the helmet model is complete. In
the next section you’ll preview how the model appears at a higher resolution
using the subdiv proxy feature.
1 Right-click the mesh, change the selection mode to Object, and then
select the helmet mesh.
2 Select Proxy > Subdiv Proxy > , and set the following:
■ Division Levels: 2
NOTE The two versions of the model are also grouped into the same node
hierarchy when the Subdiv Proxy operation is performed.
4 Select both the low and high resolution versions of the mesh in Object
Mode.
6 Press the ~ key to toggle the display so that both are visible again.
NOTE The Toggle Proxy Display (‘) and the Both Proxy and Subdiv Display
(~) display items are also available from within the Proxy menu.
7 Select only the smoothed version of the mesh in Object Mode and move
it to the left about 25 units (X = -25).
As you edit the low resolution version of the helmet mesh you’ll see the
resulting updates on the smoothed version beside it.
1 Right-click the low resolution mesh, set the selection type to Object Mode,
and then select the helmet mesh.
➤ With the low resolution version of the helmet still selected, select Normals
> Soften Edge.
All of the edges on the helmet mesh are set to be shaded in a softened fashion.
The wireframe mesh updates to display as dashed lines indicating that all of
the edges are set to be soft shaded. You may not notice any immediate effect
on the smoothed high resolution version, but its important that you perform
this step before you proceed to harden specific edges on this model.
1 Right-click the low resolution mesh and set the selection mode to Edge.
2 Select the inner edges that surround the perimeter of the face shield (see
image below).
TIP You can quickly select the inner edges surrounding the perimeter of the
face shield using the Select Edge Loop Tool. You may need to double-click
in a couple of areas to complete the selection.
1 In the perspective view, select only the smoothed high resolution version
of the helmet mesh.
2 In the Channel Box, in the Inputs section, click the listed proxy to display
its attributes.
4 Select all of the edges for the grill vents and harden them as well.
1 Select the lower outer edges on the face shield (see image).
3 In the scene view, press the middle mouse button then drag the mouse
to the right to add a crease to the selected edges.
A thick line appears on both the low resolution model and the high
resolution version to indicate that a crease has been applied. Notice on
the high resolution version that the related edges have become sharper
in appearance, but not as sharp as if they were hardened using the Harden
Edge feature.
NOTE You can toggle the creased edge display (thick lines) by selecting
Crease Edges.
Your model is now complete. Depending on your requirements you can delete
the construction history on both the low resolution and high resolution
versions.
Refine any regions on the helmet as required to gain more experience with
the tools presented in this lesson.
If you need to work with either version of the model separately you can
ungroup the two meshes by selecting the top node of their hierarchy in the
■ You can create complex polygonal models with surprisingly few techniques.
■ Starting from a primitive surface such as a cube, you can smooth, scale,
move, extrude, split, and rotate components of the primitive to create a
low resolution version of the model you want to create.
■ You must frequently adjust vertices to fine-tune the shape, and finally
smooth the edges between faces where desired in order to produce the
final version of your model.
Polygonal modeling has many timesaving features not covered in this lesson:
■ If you’re planning to use your polygonal surfaces where the poly count is
constrained, such as with interactive games, Maya has a number of tools
for minimizing the number of polygonal faces of an object such as the
Reduce Tool. Fewer faces means simpler geometry. This is critical when
fewer polygons means increased interactive performance with games
applications. You can view the polygon count on your mesh by selecting
the mesh and then choosing Poly Count.
■ Maya also has a category of tools called Deformers. Deformers let you bend,
twist, and scale your objects by enveloping the object in a cage-like
manipulator called a lattice deformer that you can manipulate.
■ The NURBS chapter in this guide describes how to use the Sculpt Geometry
Tool to modify a surface by pushing, pulling, and smoothing a surface
without first selecting vertices. Though the lesson shows how to shape a
NURBS surface, you can apply many of the same techniques when sculpting
polygonal surfaces.
If you want to learn more about a particular tool or feature that has been
presented in this lesson, refer to the Maya Help.
Introduction
In this lesson you alter an existing polygonal head model into a goblin by
sculpting the mesh with the transformation tools.
In this lesson you’ll be introduced to some of the polygon modeling options
Maya provides by learning how to:
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lesson on page 72.
2 Right-click the head model and select Vertex from the marking menu.
The vertices appear on the mesh.
This colored area represents the falloff. Yellow represents areas of low
falloff while black represents areas of high falloff. Areas with low falloff
are affected more by transformations to selected components than areas
of high falloff.
5 Hold the b key and drag the left mouse button left or right.
The falloff area grows and shrinks as you move the mouse. Adjust the
size so that it encompasses as much of the nose as possible without
touching the face.
8 Select the Move Tool again and drag the y axis (it appears yellow when
selected and green when unselected) manipulator down.
This creates a bend in the nose.
3 Right-click the head and select Vertex from the marking menu.
The vertices appear on the mesh.
6 Hold the ‘b’ key on your keyboard and drag the the left mouse button
left or right to adjust the Falloff radius so that it encompasses only the
chin.
7 Select the Move Tool and drag the chin down and away from the face so
that it becomes longer and more angular.
2 In the Reflection section, turn on Reflection and set the Reflection axis
to X.
3 Right-click the head and select Vertex from the marking menu.
The vertices appear on the mesh.
5 Pull the x axis manipulator to the left so that the cheeks are pulled closer
together.
Both cheeks are transformed identically and appear more boney.
5 Hold the ‘b’ key on your keyboard and drag the mouse left and right to
adjust the Falloff radius so that it only affects the eyebrow.
7 Drag the Z (dark blue) rotate manipulator in the scene to rotate the
eyebrows inward.
3 Tumble the model so that you have a clear view of the left ear.
4 Right-click the head and select Vertex from the marking menu.
The vertices appear on the mesh.
Surface based falloff ensures that only the ear is affected by your
transformation. If you were using Volume based falloff, parts of the head
would also be moved along with the ear.
9 Select the Move Tool again and pull the pointy end of the ears away from
the head.
4 Right-click the head and select Vertex from the marking menu.
5 On one side of the mesh, drag the mouse around the eye socket, beneath
the eyebrow until you’ve covered a small area around the eye.
You may find it easier to temporarily disable Soft Select to get a better
view of what you are selecting. You can quickly toggle Soft Select on and
off by pressing the ‘b’ key on your keyboard.
6 With Soft Select on, hold the ‘b’ key and drag the mouse to resize the
falloff area so it covers only the eye sockets.
7 Select the Move Tool in the Toolbox and pull the z axis manipulator
toward the head.
9 Right-click the head and select Object Mode from the marking menu.
10 Select the two eyes and move them back along the z axis so they fit into
the eye sockets again.
1 Right-click the head and select Vertex from the marking menu.
The vertices appear on the mesh.
4 Hold the ‘b’ key and move the mouse left or right to resize the Falloff
radius so it only encompasses the tip of the nose.
6 In the Tool Settings Editor, in the Reflection Settings section, click the
Reset button.
8 Move the vertex away from the reflection line along the x axis to widen
the end of the nose.
Now you can unhide the hat layer to finish off the goblin.
➤ Open the Channel Box and click the first empty box in the hat layer.
■ You can change the shape of the falloff curve in the Soft Selection tool
settings either by adjusting the Falloff curve graph or by selecting any of
the Curve presets below it.
You can also save a custom Falloff curve to the Curve presets. For more
information, see Change the shape of the falloff area.
1 Select File > New Scene to create a new scene before starting each lesson.
149
2 Make sure the Construction History icon (below the menu bar) is on:
3 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
4 Select the Surfaces menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions in
this chapter for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected
the Surfaces menu set.
NOTE Before you perform the lessons in this book, ensure that the Interactive
Creation option for primitives is turned off by selecting Create > NURBS
Primitives > Interactive Creation. That is, ensure a check mark does not appear
beside the menu item.
5 Make sure that Soft Selection is turned off by opening the Attribute Editor
with the Select Tool active and unchecking the box marked Soft Select.
Introduction
A simple technique for creating NURBS surfaces is to create a curve for the
profile of your desired form and then create a surface using one of the various
NURBS surfacing tools available in Maya. In this lesson, you create an egg
holder using NURBS curves and the Revolve Tool.
■ Create a NURBS curve using the control vertices (CV) creation technique.
■ Determine the start and end points for a NURBS curve and its direction.
■ Edit a NURBS surface by editing its initial profile curve when it is linked
to the surface by construction history.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 149.
2 Select Panels > Layouts > Four Panes so you can see multiple views of the
scene.
5 (Windows and Linux) After you click position 13, press Enter to complete
the curve’s creation.
(Mac OS X) Press Return to complete the curve’s creation.
The points you clicked in the scene view become the control vertices
(CVs) of the completed curve. CVs are points you manipulate to alter the
shape of a curve (or surface). These points often lie away from the curve.
It takes a little practice to be able to predict exactly where a curve will be
positioned when you click CV positions with the CV Curve Tool. Once
you’ve learned the technique, you’ll be able to create and edit curves with
graceful symmetry. By default, you must click at least four points to create
a curve with the CV Curve Tool.
For some advanced operations in Maya, you need to know the meaning
of the start of a curve and the curve direction. The start of a curve is the first
CV you create when you draw the curve. It is indicated by a small hollow
1 With the curve selected, select Surfaces > Revolve. This creates the egg
holder surface from the revolved profile curve. Examine the results in
the perspective view.
Maya does not delete the profile curve. In a subsequent step, you’ll edit
the profile curve to alter the shape of the surface.
3 With the pointer in the perspective view, press 5 (for Shading > Smooth
Shade All).
This displays the egg holder as a shaded surface rather than a wireframe
in the perspective view.
Press 1, 2, and 3 to switch between the different degrees of display
smoothness. (These hotkeys correspond to the menu items under Display
> NURBS menu item (Rough/Medium/Fine).
The finer the smoothness, the greater the impact is on interactive
performance when you work with complex models.
The smoothness display only affects the scene view. Rendered images
display with high quality smoothness regardless of this setting.
2 In the Outliner, select the curve you revolved (curve1) by clicking on its
name in the list.
The curve becomes highlighted in the scene views.
3 In the front view, right-click and select Control Vertex from the marking
menu.
The CVs for the curve appear.
4 Select and move one or more CVs to adjust the curve shape as desired.
If you have trouble selecting one of the CVs in the front view, select it
in the perspective view after dollying and tumbling the camera as
necessary.
This modifies the shape of the egg holder because it is linked to the shape
of the curve by its construction history.
■ NURBS surfaces are webs of interconnected curves. The creation curves are
used to create and subsequently modify the surfaces if required.
■ You cannot render curves, so your work with them is always an adjunct
to creating and editing surfaces.
■ Besides moving a curve’s CVs to alter its shape, you can cut, attach, extend,
close, and smooth curves.
■ After you create a surface from a revolved curve, you can edit the surface
at a component level by moving CVs or scaling groups of CVs on that
surface to customize the shape of the surface. (You will need to turn off
construction history in order to do this.)
Introduction
In addition to creating NURBS surfaces using curves, you can edit and sculpt
surfaces and primitive objects in Maya using the Sculpt Geometry Tool.
The Sculpt Geometry Tool allows you to interactively push or pull on the
surface regions to create areas that are embossed or in relief in relation to the
surface.
In this lesson, you learn some of the basic concepts of these tools by sculpting
a cartoon face and head from a NURBS primitive sphere using the Sculpt
Geometry Tool.
In this lesson you learn:
■ Basic sculpting operations (push, pull, smooth, relax and erase) with the
Sculpt Geometry Tool.
■ How the density of isoparametric lines affects the surface detail possible
when sculpting.
■ How to change the brush radius for the Sculpt Geometry Tool.
■ How to import geometry from a pre-existing file into your current scene.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 149.
2 Select Create > NURBS Primitives > Sphere > . In the options window,
select Edit > Reset Settings, enter the following values, then click the
Create button:
■ Radius: 6
■ Number of Sections: 30
■ Number of Spans: 30
The Radius sets the sphere’s size in grid units. A value of 6 creates a sphere
big enough to use the grid for size comparison.
The Number of Sections sets the number of vertical curves, called isoparms,
for the sphere. Isoparms show the outline of the surface shape. The more
isoparms a surface has, the more CVs it has. (By default, CVs are not
displayed.) More CVs means better precision as you edit a surface. The
Number of Spans sets the number of horizontal isoparms.
The drawback to having too many CVs is that you’ll have a harder time
making smooth shape changes to broad regions. Lots of CVs also means
slower processing time as you work with the surface. It’s best to make
surfaces with as few CVs as necessary.
We chose 30 Sections and Spans for this lesson because experience has
shown that this allows adequate facial subtlety without slowing Maya
operation on a workstation of modest processing power.
4 Rotate the sphere 90 degrees on its side (Rotate Z: 90). This positions the
sphere’s CVs well for modeling a simple head and face. You’ll learn why
later in this lesson.
5 To give Egghead an oval shape, set the ScaleX for the sphere to 1.3 or so.
Optionally, you can move Egghead above the grid so the grid doesn’t
interfere with your view of Egghead. Also, position the perspective view
so the Z-axis of the View Axis points toward you.
1 With Egghead selected, press 5 to display the surface with smooth shading.
3 Drag the Color attribute slider roughly 3/4 of the way to the right, set
Eccentricity to 0, and close the window.
1 With Egghead selected, select Edit NURBS > Sculpt Geometry Tool >
. In the Tool Settings window, click Reset Tool, and make sure the Sculpt
parameters are displayed.
In the Sculpt Parameters section, there are four operations for sculpting
a surface. Each affects the region of the surface where you drag (stroke)
your mouse or stylus relative to the surface normals:
■ The Push operation depresses the surface in the region of the stroke.
■ The Pull operation raises the surface in the region of the stroke.
The Erase operation works up to the last time you saved the scene or
clicked the Update button to the right of Erase Surface.
3 Select the Erase operation and click the Flood button. This erases all your
changes.
4 Select the Pull operation and enter a Radius(U) of 0.25, then drag between
a pair of horizontal isoparms without crossing either.
This has no effect because the stroke radius didn’t make contact with the
CVs of either isoparm. Regardless of which operation you use, only CVs
are affected by the strokes.
7 Select the Pull operation with a Radius(U) of 0.5. Drag along a vertical
isoparm. For comparison, drag along a horizontal isoparm.
The vertical stroke creates a thinner ridge than the horizontal stroke
because the density of vertical isoparms is greater. The number of
underlying CVs and their positioning affects the outcome of your strokes.
TIP You can alternatively adjust the radius of the Sculpt Geometry Tool using
a Hotkey. Move the tool over the object, press and hold the b Hotkey and
drag left or right. The circle on the object with numerical radius value
represents the size of your tool. Stroke on the object to try out a new size.
9 Rotate the camera view so the X axis of the View Axis points toward you.
Draw a vertical Pull stroke again.
As your stroke nears the center of Egghead, a kink occurs. It’s challenging
to alter a surface symmetrically in a region where many isoparms converge
at a single point, called a pole. Always consider the position of isoparms
as you sculpt a surface. In general, sculpt where isoparms are evenly,
regularly distributed.
10 Erase all changes again, then reposition the camera view so the Z-axis of
the View Axis points toward you.
TIP If the Sculpt Geometry Tool is selected but not the surface you want to
work on, right-click the surface and select Select from the marking menu.
1 In the Sculpt Parameter section of the Sculpt Geometry Tool, set Maxs
Displacement to 2.
Sculpting a nose
Now you’ll begin sculpting Egghead’s face, starting with a simple nose.
1 Position the perspective view so the Z-axis of the View Axis points toward
you.
4 Select the Gaussian brush profile setting so your strokes have a soft, faded
edge:
If the strokes create a bumpy surface, turn on the Smooth operation and
click Flood once or twice to smooth all strokes on the surface. Because
Opacity is 0.2, the Smooth operation is subtle. Alternatively, you can
smooth a selected region by stroking just that area. It’s common to smooth
a surface regularly while using pull and push strokes.
Because there are relatively few isoparms in the nose area, you can only
create a simple nose that’s broad and rounded. If you want to create
sharper features, for instance, depressed nostrils or sharp ridges, you’ll
need to insert isoparms in the nose region. Sculpting a mouth on page
167 describes how to insert isoparms.
3 To make a pair of identical eye sockets, display the Stroke settings in the
Tool Settings window and turn on Reflection.
4 Set the Reflection Axis to X and then position the sculpt icon on Egghead.
A pair of identical Push icons appears on Egghead.
5 Adjust the positioning as desired for the eye sockets. Click the mouse
many times in the desired location.
Sculpting eyebrows
Eyebrows help define how stern or pleasant a face appears.
1 Select the Pull operation. Use the same option settings as for the eye
sockets, including Reflection.
2 Position the sculpt icons above the eyes and draw horizontal strokes. If
necessary, click positions where you need to build up the eyebrows.
Smooth the eyebrows as necessary.
To overcome this problem, you must insert isoparms in the mouth region
before sculpting.
3 Click the horizontal isoparm below the nose and shift-click the next two
below it so they become yellow.
This inserts two extra isoparms between each pair of selected isoparms,
for a total of four extra isoparms. This provides enough CVs to create
subtlety in the mouth.
You might want to add vertical isoparms at the lips in a similar way. The
extra isoparms would also be useful if you were to later enhance the shape
of the nose. Insert isoparms only where needed. More isoparms means
slower processing speed.
In any case, do not change the number of isoparms by editing the original
number of Sections and Spans in the makeNurbSphere history node. This
will reshape your sculpted surface undesirably.
2 Select the Push operation. Enter 0.2 for Radius(U). In the Stroke tab, make
sure Reflection is turned on.
3 Starting at the center of the area appropriate for the indentation between
the lips, stroke outward from the center. It’s best to start the stroke with
the dual icons on top of one another (in other words, only one icon is
displayed).
4 Select the Pull operation and set the Radius(U) to 0.3. Using a similar
technique as for the prior step, stroke the upper lip. Repeat for the lower
lip.
■ For facial features such as the chin, cheeks, and forehead, use a Radius(U)
larger than 1 and start with a Maximum Displacement between 0.5 and
1.
■ Insert isoparms wherever you want to add extra detail with the Sculpt
Geometry Tool.
■ To create eyeballs for the sockets, create a sphere and scale it as necessary
to fit the socket. You might want to increase the eyeball’s Scale X value to
make it oblong. To duplicate the eyeball, and make a mirrored copy of the
original you’ll first need to set the pivot point for the eyeball to be at the
origin 0, 0, 0 using the following steps. With the sphere selected, press the
Insert (Windows and Linux) or Home (Mac OS X) key so that the sphere’s
pivot point is displayed. Next move the pivot point to the origin using the
X hotkey so that the pivot snaps to the grid at 0, 0, 0. Select Insert (Home)
to turn off the pivot point display. Finally, use Edit > Duplicate Special >
and set the Scale setting to -1, 1, 1. This makes the new eyeball a
mirrored duplicate of the original on the opposite side of Egghead’s face.
Position the eyeballs in the sockets. Parent the eyeballs to Egghead.
1 If you saved the Eggholder scene in the prior lesson, you can import the
egg holder into this Egghead scene, then position Egghead into the egg
holder.
To import the egg holder into the Egghead scene, use File > Import and
select the name of the scene that contains Eggholder.
Importing a scene imports all objects from that scene.
2 Increase (or decrease) the scale of the egg holder (or Egghead) as necessary
for a snug fit.
■ Primitive objects are useful objects for sculpting in many cases. After you
create a primitive, you typically sculpt, scale, trim, or otherwise alter the
object into a more complex shape. Though most primitives are surfaces
rather than curves, they still derive their shape from curves.
Introduction
■ Modify the outline of a circle primitive by editing the position of its CVs.
■ Loft cross section curves to create a NURBS surface using the Loft tool.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 149.
2 Select Create > NURBS Primitives > Circle > . In the options window,
select Edit > Reset Settings, enter the following values, then click the
Apply button:
■ Radius: 4
■ Number of Sections: 24
The Radius sets the size of the circle in grid units. A value of 4 creates a
circle with enough size so that you can use the grid for convenient size
comparison.
The Number of Sections sets the number of CVs in the circle. By using
24 CVs, you can create a circle with the subtle contours required in this
lesson. Display the CVs of the circle to see the 24 CVs.
■ Number of Sections: 24
This creates a smaller circle inside the first circle as shown below.
4 Change the scene view so you can see the circles from the top view.
5 Right-click the inner circle and select Control Vertex from the marking
menu. Repeat for the outer circle.
7 As shown in the following figure, move CVs from the outer circle to the
corresponding inner circle positions. As you drag a CV near its destination,
the Snap to Points mode causes the CV to jump to the exact CV position.
Duplicating curves
In the next steps, you’ll create several copies of the previously created circles
(also called curves) to form the skeletal contours of the salt shaker’s surface.
1 Right-click the outer curve and choose Select from the marking menu.
2 Select Edit > Duplicate Special > . In the options window, select Edit
> Reset Settings, enter the following values, then click Duplicate Special:
■ Translate: 0 3 0
■ Number of Copies: 4
3 Select the inner circle and then move it to 0, 13, 0 by entering these
translate values in the Channel Box. Increase its Scale attributes to 1.33,
1.33, 1.33..
4 Use Edit > Duplicate Special > with the following options:
■ Translate: 0 2 0
■ Number of Copies: 3
This creates three copies of the circle, each translated two units above
the last, and each bigger than the last.
Lofting a surface
You’ve created a total of nine curves. In the next steps, you loft these curves
into a surface that matches the contours of their perimeters. Above the
midpoint of the surface, the shape will change from a flower-shaped perimeter
to a circular perimeter.
1 Starting from the bottom circle, and working towards the top, shift-select
all the circles, one at a time.
The order of selection is important when shift-selecting for a loft
operation. You must start with the bottom flower-shaped circle and end
with the top circular-shaped circle. Alternatively, you can drag a selection
box around the circles. The surface to be lofted will be based on the
selection order of the curves.
NOTE Many of the surface creation tools also have the option of creating
polygon or subdivision surface versions of a surface with the same input
curves. You do this by setting the appropriate Output Geometry option for
that particular surface tool.
1 Select Create > NURBS Primitives > Sphere > . In the options window,
select Edit > Reset Settings, and click the Create button. Maya puts the
sphere at the origin, its display currently obstructed by the salt shaker
body.
7 Right-click on the Cap and choose Control Vertex from the marking
menu.
8 Select the top row of CVs and drag them down until the top of the cap
is flattened:
Check that the bottom half of the cap isn’t poking through the visible
surface of the body. You can scale the bottom CVs inward to avoid this
problem.
■ You made a salt shaker with two surfaces: a body made from lofted curves
and a cap made from an altered sphere. An advantage of creating a separate
surface for the cap and base is that you can easily give each a different
color or texture, for example, one chrome and the other marble. Another
advantage of creating a separate cap is that you can animate the object
separately. For example, you could choose to animate the cap unscrewing
from the shakerBody.
■ You used a Loft operation rather than a Revolve operation to create the
body. The vertical corrugations on the surface would be impossible to
create by revolving a curve.
■ You can alter the position of the profile curves and the shape of the shaker
will update because of the construction history. If you’re certain you won’t
change the body’s shape by editing the shape of the lofted curves, you can
delete the body’s construction history to quicken Maya’s processing of
your interaction with the surface. (For a surface as simple as the salt shaker,
deleting the history won’t boost processing much.)
■ There are many other useful tools for creating and editing surfaces. For a
glimpse of the possibilities, take a look at the Surfaces menu and the Edit
NURBS menu.
If you want to learn more about a particular tool or feature that has been
presented in this lesson, please refer to the Maya Help.
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from its
installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information, see
Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
181
5 Select Window > Settings/Preferences > Preferences.
NOTE Before you perform the lessons in this book, ensure that the Interactive
Creation option for primitives is turned off by selecting Create > Polygon
Primitives > Interactive Creation. That is, ensure a check mark does not appear
beside the menu item.
8 Make sure that Soft Selection is turned off by opening the Attribute Editor
with the Select Tool active and unchecking the box marked Soft Select.
Introduction
In this lesson you learn some of the basic tools for working with subdivision
surfaces as you model a human character's hand.
➤ Select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube > . In the options window,
select Edit > Reset Settings. Then enter the following values and click the
Create button.
■ Width: 8
■ Height: 2.5
■ Depth: 8
With the smoothness set to Fine, you can see that the conversion to a
subdivision surface creates a rounded, smooth shape. By pressing 3, the
subdivision surface is displayed more precisely in the scene view. This
gives a closer approximation of what the surface will look like when you
create a rendered image of the scene.
As an alternative, you could have chosen a Rough smoothness (press 1)
so that Maya processes your editing changes in the scene view more
quickly. Regardless of the smoothness in the scene view, surfaces always
are displayed precisely in rendered images of the scene.
2 With LeftHand still selected, select Edit Mesh > Split Polygon Tool >
. In the tool settings window click the Reset Tool button.
You’ll use this tool to split the front face of the proxy into several faces
to be extruded into fingers.
3 In the front view, click the point on the top edge as shown in the
following figure, then click the corresponding point directly below it on
the bottom edge. If the line between the points isn’t perfectly straight,
use the middle mouse to drag the second point to the correct position.
Press Enter (Windows and Linux) or Return (Mac OS X).
4 Repeat the preceding two steps as necessary to split the face as follows:
Notice how splitting the face into multiple faces alters the shape of the
subdivision surface. The front part of the subdivision surface now
resembles the proxy shape more. If you were to split the front face several
more times, especially near the outer edges, the subdivision surface would
sharpen and resemble the proxy shape even more. More faces means finer
control, often at the expense of making the surface harder to work with.
With the added faces, the subdivision surface looks a bit like the palm of
a hand. You’ll build upon this shape to create a left hand with palm facing
downward and fingers extruded outward. You’ll extrude the wide faces
into fingers, and you’ll leave the narrow faces as webbing between the
fingers.
2 Select the right-most face by dragging a selection box around the tiny
box at its center. (The subsequent illustration shows which face to select.)
4 Drag the blue arrow manipulator outward a little to create the first
segment of the smallest finger.
The blue arrow turns yellow when selected.
5 Repeat the prior two steps to create the middle segment of the smallest
finger.
6 Repeat the prior two steps once again to create the top segment and
complete the finger.
By creating three segments for a finger, you mimic a real finger’s natural
structure. The borders between the segments have vertices (not displayed
currently) that let you reshape those regions, for instance, to create
knuckles.
NOTE Do not be concerned if the hand you create does not match the
lesson’s illustrations. Your goal in this lesson is to learn the workflow of
subdivision surfaces, not to perfect your modeling technique.
Next, you extrude a thumb using similar techniques as you used for the fingers.
The following steps are abbreviated. See the preceding pages for details on the
described tools, if necessary.
1 Select LeftHand.
Make sure it is highlighted in green in the scene view. If it is not green,
select LeftHand in the Outliner.
2 Use Edit Mesh > Split Polygon Tool to split the side face in the thumb
region into three faces.
While splitting, make sure the middle face is larger than the outer faces
as shown below.
4 Click the surrounding blue circle and use the rotate manipulator to aim
it in a direction appropriate for a thumb.
5 Extrude three times more to create each segment of the thumb. Use the
extrusion manipulator to rotate, move, and scale each extrusion to create
the desired shape of a thumb. Use the following figure as a guideline.
Again, it’s unnecessary to match the illustration or create a realistic thumb
for this lesson.
The extrusion manipulator is easy to figure out by clicking and dragging
its various elements. If necessary, you can also use the conventional Move,
Scale, and Rotate Tools to reshape the faces that control the thumb’s
shape.
6 fIn the scene view, right-click LeftHand and select Vertex from the
marking menu. The purple vertices at the corners of the faces control the
adjacent region of the hand.
1 In the scene view, right-click LeftHand and select Face from the marking
menu.
2 Select the face at the wrist and press Delete to create a hole where you
could attach an arm.
1 Select LeftHand.
3 Select Subdiv Surfaces > Standard Mode. This switches to a mode that
lets you modify the surface at various levels of detail to suit your needs.
4 In the scene view, right-click LeftHand and select Vertex from the marking
menu.
Though the 1s are displayed in the same regions as the 0s were previously,
there are many more 1s displayed. The 1s are also vertices, and their
increased presence means you can refine the shape with more subtlety.
6 Refine the shape of the fingers, thumb, and hand as desired by selecting
various level 1 vertices and moving, scaling, and rotating them with the
transformation tools. (Scaling and rotating has effect only if you select
two or more vertices.)
It’s essential to tumble the camera from various perspectives to make sure
you’ve selected only the desired vertices.
To return to level 0 to alter the shape with fewer vertices, right-click the
surface and select Display Level > 0. Each level has advantages. Level 1
allows finer control because there are more vertices. Level 0 allows control
of broader regions, and it’s often easier to select the desired vertices since
1 Switch to level 1.
2 Right-click the surface and select Edge from the marking menu.
3 Shift-click to select the edges that surround the region where you’ll shape
a nail.
6 Select Modify > Transformation Tools > Move Tool, Rotate Tool, Scale
Tool, Show Manipulator Tool > . In the Tool Settings window, turn
on Normal, then close the window. You can thereafter use the Move Tool
manipulator to move vertices in a direction normal (perpendicular) to
the surface.
NOTE Be careful to select only those vertices in the nail region. You may
need to tumble the camera to ensure that all extra vertices are de-selected.
8 Drag the Move Tool’s N manipulator down slightly to form the depression
of a fingernail bed.
1 Switch to Edge selection mode and shift-click the edges around the nail
to select them. (It might be easier to see the desired edges by first selecting
Shading > Wireframe.)
2 After you select the edges, select Subdiv Surfaces > Full Crease Edge/Vertex.
Once you crease an edge, it displays with a dashed line as a visual
reminder that the edge has been creased. If you change your mind, you
can remove the crease using Subdiv Surfaces > Uncrease Edge/Vertex.
3 To create a ridge at the edge of the nail, switch to Vertex selection mode
and select the level 2 vertices on the skin at the perimeter of the previously
selected edges. Move them up so that the skin’s juncture with the nail
forms a slight ridge.
■ In Smooth Shade display mode (Shading > Smooth Shade All), certain
vertices might be below the shaded surface and therefore impossible to
select and move. To display and select such vertices, switch to wireframe
shading (Shading > Wireframe). After selecting the vertices, return to
Smooth Shade display mode so you will be able to more easily see the
results of moving them.
■ You might get better results using the Move Tool’s default World setting
rather than the Normal setting made in a prior step. To return to the default
setting, select Modify > Transformation Tools > Move Tool, Rotate Tool,
Scale Tool, Show Manipulator Tool > . In the Tool Settings window,
click Reset Tool, and then close the window.
■ To extend the front of the nail past the skin with a sharp edge, add a second
crease on the edges below the tip of the nail. (With the appropriate edges
selected, select Subdiv Surfaces > Full Crease Edge/Vertex.)
You might also want to add an additional level of vertices at the edges.
(With the appropriate vertices selected, select Subdiv Surfaces > Refine
Selected Components.)
After you crease the edges and add the extra vertices, you can make the
nail’s edge overhang the skin below it by dragging the vertices at the nail
tip out and away from the finger. Then tuck the row of vertices below the
overhanging vertices in the opposite direction.
An example of a completed nail follows:
1 If you want more practice, repeat the procedure for the rest of the nails.
2 When finished, select Modify > Transformation Tools > Move Tool, Rotate
Tool, Scale Tool, Show Manipulator Tool > . In the Tool Settings
There are many other features related to subdivision surfaces not covered in
this lesson. These include the ability to:
■ Create subdivision surface primitive shapes from the Create > Subdiv
Primitives menu: Sphere, Cube, Cylinder, Cone, Plane, and Torus. With
these shapes, you can quickly start your subdivision surface model without
converting from polygons or NURBS surfaces.
■ You can sculpt subdivision surfaces using the Sculpt Geometry Tool.
If you want to learn more about a particular tool or feature that has been
presented in this lesson, refer to the Maya Help.
199
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
3 Select the Animation menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions
in this chapter for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected
the Animation menu set.
Introduction
When you set a keyframe (or key), you assign a value to an object’s attribute
(for example, translate, rotate, scale, color, and so on) at a specific time.
Most animation systems use the frame as the basic unit of measurement because
each frame is played back in rapid succession to provide the illusion of motion.
The frame rate (frames per second) that is used to play back an animation is
based on the medium that the animation will be played back (for example,
film, TV, or a video game.)
When you set several keys at different times with different values, Maya
generates the attribute values between those times as the scene plays back
each frame. The result is the movement or change over time of those objects
and attributes.
In this lesson, you will use simple keyframing techniques to make a ball fly
over a fence and bounce off the ground.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 199.
Setting keyframes
In the following steps, you use keyframes to set the starting and ending
positions of the ball’s movement.
1 Click the rewind button to go to the start of the playback range. This
changes the current frame to 1.
2 Select the ball, then select Animate > Set Key. (Keyboard shortcut: s).
4 With the Move Tool, drag the ball’s X-axis handle to position the ball at
the right edge of the ground as shown in the image below.
7 Press the Stop button on the playback control to stop the animation after
you view a few repetitions.
You can drag the mouse back and forth (scrub) in the Time Slider to see
the animation play back and forth at the speed you drag the mouse.
If you were to display the scene with Panels > Layouts > Four Panes, only
the active panel would show the ball moving.
To make the ball fly over the fence rather than pass through it, you need to
position the ball above the fence and set a key there.
1 Go to frame 33 or so—at the moment where the ball sits in the middle
of the fence.
TIP Throughout this lesson, tumble the perspective view or examine a front
view to make sure the positioning is correct.
In the next steps, you’ll set keys to bounce the ball in the middle of the right
half of the ground.
1 Go to frame 50. At this moment, the ball sits in a position above the
middle section of the right half of the ground.
3 Set a key.
4 Go to frame 60.
6 Set a key. When you play the animation, the ball travels over the fence
and bounces on the other side.
If you have a fast computer, you might notice that the animation plays
too fast. By default, Maya plays the animation as fast as it can be
processed. Because this scene is simple, the animation might play faster
than the default film rate (24 frames per second).
Do not be concerned that the animation plays with a halting or jerky
motion. When you render all the frames of your animation for final
production, the animation will be smooth. If you want to preview the
animation at the smooth production speed (or nearly so), use Window
> Playblast.
1 With the ball selected, select Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor.
3 To center the display of the animation curves, select View > Frame
Selection (in the Graph Editor window). If you want to see more detail
in the graph, use your mouse to dolly and track the graph view.
4 Select the point on the Translate Y (green) curve at frame 50. This causes
a pair of tangent handles to appear at the point. Each end point of the
newly displayed straight line is a tangent handle. The handles let you
control the curvature near the key point.
Animation curves have a few control structures for curve editing. You
can do any of these operations:
■ Use the Move tool and middle mouse button to move a key point.
You can alternatively use your keyboard to enter precise values for a
selected key’s frame and value in the boxes above the graph area.
■ Use the Move tool and middle mouse button to drag the tangent
handles and change the adjacent curvature.
(You can shift-drag with the Move tool to constrain a move operation
to a single direction.)
■ Use the Scale tool and middle mouse button to scale selected key
points closer together or further apart.
6 Play the animation and you’ll see the ball bounce more sharply.
To sharpen the bounce more, you need to edit the positioning of the
tangent handles to steepen the curvature approaching the key point.
8 Use the Move Tool and the middle mouse button to drag it upwards a
little so you can see the how the curvature at the key point changes.
By default, when a pair of tangent handles share a key point, they work
as a unit. Move one and you move the other in an opposing direction.
This is often desirable in an animation curve, because it ensures the
curvature at that point stays symmetrical. Symmetrical curvature often
helps prevent unusual animation shifts.
In this case, however, you want to steepen the curvature’s approach
toward the curve point in the same direction on both sides. You therefore
need to break the symmetrical interdependency between the two tangents.
This sharpens the bounce to simulate the effect of gravity and elasticity.
3 Click and hold the middle mouse button anywhere in the graph at frame
1 (slightly to the right of 0).
Notice the question mark icon. The location of this icon indicates the
point from which scaling occurs. (Because you need to scale the animation
inward toward frame 1, you need to start your drag operation at frame
1.)
4 Without releasing the mouse button, drag to the left until the right-most
key points on both curves are positioned roughly at frame 48. (When
selected, the right-most key points are yellow.)
5 Widen the Graph Editor window as necessary to see the graph clearly.
Also, dolly the view or select View > Frame Selection (in the Graph Editor
window).
1 On the Translate X curve, delete the three key points between the two
key points at the end. To delete keys, select the key points and press
Delete. (The preceding figures show the curve after the points were
deleted.) To delete the points, drag a selection box around them and press
Delete.
With fewer key points on the curve, it’s easier to maintain the curve’s
smoothness for larger distances as you edit its shape. Small kinks in an
animation curve can ruin an otherwise perfect animation, so it’s useful
to remove key points that you aren’t using.
2 On the Translate X curve, select the left-most key point and move its
right tangent handle down slightly. (Remember to use the middle mouse
button when moving a handle or point.) Select the right-most key point
and move its left tangent handle up slightly.
Notice that the slope of the Translate X curve increases slightly in the
early part of the animation, then tapers off toward the end. This causes
the ball to accelerate slightly at the beginning of the animation, then
decelerate after its first bounce.
3 On the Translate Y curve, remove the key point at frame 22. (The
preceding figures show the curve after the point was removed.) This point
wasn’t essential to the curve shape.
5 At the key point where the bounce occurs on the Translate Y curve, move
the left tangent handle up a bit. This raises the high part of the curve left
of that key point, which makes the ball rise higher over the fence.
6 If you want to change the shape of Translate Y curve but lack adequate
control with the existing key points, you can add a key point at the
position of your choice. (No key points were added in the prior figures.)
To add a key, click the Add Keys Tool icon, select the curve, and
middle-click the desired position on or off the curve.
➤ From the main menu, select Edit > Delete by Type > Channels, Static
Channels, Non-particle Expressions.
This deletes all unnecessary keys for all objects in the scene. Alternatively,
you can remove the static channels for a selected object with Edit > Delete by
Type > Channels, Static Channels, Non-particle Expressions.
In addition to static channels, you’ll often create excess keys—keys that aren’t
being used to control the shape of a curve. Whenever you see three key points
that lie in a straight line, the one in the middle is unnecessary. For example,
in this lesson’s original Translate X curve, there were four redundant keys:
■ Set keys for attributes, then use the Graph Editor to refine the animation
and remove unnecessary keys. This is a typical workflow when keyframing.
■ Work with the Graph Editor to adjust the animation attributes animation
curves directly.
The Graph Editor is the best tool for editing keyed animation by reshaping
animation curves. You can use it to change key positions, add or remove
keys, and alter the fluidity and symmetry of animation.
Each key point on an animation curve has a Tangent setting that specifies
the curvature leading into that point. The default Tangent setting (Spline)
creates rounded curvature—useful for animating attributes that change
smoothly over time. The Linear setting creates angular curvature, useful
for a bounce effect or any other abrupt change in attribute value. Other
Tangent settings are available for different animation effects. For example,
a Stepped setting lets you make an instantaneous leap in value, useful
when you want to flash a light off and on.
■ Use the Time and Range slider to play back your animation.
Although the Graph Editor is a popular animation tool, you can also cut,
copy, paste, and delete keys directly in the Time Slider to edit animation.
Select a key position in the Time Slider, then right-click to select the desired
operation from a pop-up menu.
You may find the following techniques useful when keyframing your
animations:
■ There are alternative object display modes that quicken the display of
animation in the scene view. When you select Shading > Bounding Box
(from the panel menu in the scene view), Maya displays simple box-shaped
geometry in place of the actual objects in your scene. The simpler shapes
enable Maya to respond to any camera and object movement faster. The
drawback is that you cannot edit the shape of the objects in this display
mode.
Introduction
With keyframe animation, you key an attribute value to a time in the Time
Slider. You repeat this process with different values at different times to animate
the object.
When you must animate multiple objects or attributes that interrelate, setting
keyframes can quickly become a complex task. Set Driven Key is a technique
for driving one object’s or attribute’s animation from another attribute.
With driven keys, you relate an attribute value to the value of another attribute.
You repeat this with different values to create a dependent link between a pair
of attributes. A change in the driver attribute alters the value of the driven
attribute. In this way the animation of the driven attribute doesn’t need to
be manually set; it occurs automatically once the relationship between
attributes has been established. This makes setting up some types of animations
much more efficient. For example, you can use driven keys to make a door
open when a character walks in front of it.
In this lesson, you will learn how to use Set Driven Key in order to animate a
door rising upwards when a ball approaches it.
■ Link the object attribute behavior between two objects which will link the
movement of one keyframed object to another with no keyframes assigned.
■ Use the Graph Editor to adjust the animation for the driven object.
Lesson setup
In the following steps, you set a playback range that’s long enough to see the
animation clearly. You also create the ball and the door, and position them
in the scene view in preparation for the animation.
5 Scale and position it roughly as shown in the previous figure. Have the
bottom edge of the door lie roughly along the X-axis.
6 With the pointer in the perspective view, press 5 (for Shading > Smooth
Shade All).
7 Create a small polygonal sphere and name it Ball. Scale and position it
roughly as shown in the prior figure in the introduction. Have it sit
roughly at 0, 1, 10 (X, Y, Z).
Use the default color for the door and the ball.
1 Select the door and choose Animate > Set Driven Key > Set.
The Set Driven Key window appears with the door in the Driven list.
4 In the Set Driven Key window, click the Load Driver button.
The ball appears in the Driver list.
5 In the Set Driven Key window, click translateZ in the Driver list.
This is the attribute that will drive the door’s movement.
You can set a driven key only after you select an attribute in the Driver
list and in the Driven list.
7 Move the ball to the door’s position and then move the door above the
ball.
9 Move the ball to the right of the door and then lower the door to its
previous position as shown in the following figure.
1 Select the door. To display the animation curve for a driven key in the
Graph Editor, you must select the object containing the driven attribute,
not the object containing the driving attribute.
3 From the Graph Editor, select View > Frame All. The Graph Editor shows
the driven keys that link the door’s TranslateY value to the ball’s Translate
Z value. An example follows:
The column of numbers on the left lists the driven attribute values. The
row at the bottom lists driver attribute values. The animation curve shows
the relationship between the values—the door’s Translate Y value rises
as the ball’s Translate Z value approaches 0.
You can use the Graph Editor to edit the shape of the curve to make the
door rise faster, slower, and higher as the ball approaches it.
You may find the following notes helpful when using Set Driven Key:
■ You can set driven keys to control a driven attribute with multiple driving
attributes. For instance, you can have a muscle bulge when an elbow rotates,
and have the bulge increase when the wrist rotates.
Introduction
■ Set an object to animate along a motion path using a NURBS curve as the
path.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 199.
The scene contains two objects named Aircraft and PathCurve. When
the aircraft travels on the path curve it will return to where it began.
3 In the Time Slider, ensure that the Playback End Time is set to 240.
The path animation occurs between frames 60 and 240 (180 frames in total).
Between frames 1 and 60, you keyframe the aircraft’s motion so it rises from
the ground plane. You then blend between the two animation types.
3 In the main menu, select Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion
Path > .
The Attach to Motion Path Options window appears.
4 In the options window, ensure the options are set as follows, then click
Attach:
■ Time Range: Start/End
■ Start Time: 60
■ Follow: On
■ Front Axis: X
■ Up Axis: Y
The Start and End Times set the time duration the aircraft travels along
the path curve (240 - 60 = 180 frames). The start and end times are
displayed at the ends of the curve.
5 Click play on the Timeslider playback controls to play back the animation.
The aircraft travels along the path. Observe that it begins its motion at
frame 60.
3 Open the Channel Box by clicking the Show/Hide Channel Box icon on
the Status Line.
4 In the Channel Box, click on the word motionPath1 that appears in the
Aircraft’s Inputs list.
The attributes for motionPath1 appear at the bottom of the Inputs list.
(Scroll the Channel Box window if the MotionPath1 attributes are not
fully visible).
The UValue attribute controls where the aircraft gets positioned along the
curve. The UValue refers to the curves parameterization. Parameterization is a
method used by Maya to divide a curve into increments of known amounts
so that a location along the curve can be determined.
1 Ensure the aircraft is selected so its attributes display in the Channel Box.
2 In the Time Slider, drag the current time indicator to frame 120 using
the middle mouse button.
Middle-dragging the current time indicator, instead of using the left
mouse button, changes the current time without repositioning the aircraft
along the path.
4 In the Channel Box, select the UValue channel by clicking on its name
so it becomes highlighted.
7 In the Time Slider, middle-drag the current time indicator to frame 180.
9 In the Channel Box, select the UValue channel by clicking on its name
so it becomes highlighted.
1 From the main menu, select Window > Animation Editors > Graph Editor.
The Graph Editor appears.
The shape of the animation curve provides some clues as to why the motion
of the aircraft is not smooth. Between frames 60 and 84 the curve rises and
then drops slightly. Because the animation curve represents translation along
the curve, a drop in the curve indicates that the object travels backwards. A
similar occurrence happens at the end of the curve as well. To correct this,
you need to modify the tangents for the keys in the Graph Editor.
1 In the Graph Editor, press the shift key, then double click on the
animation curve to select the four keys (frames 60, 120, 180 & 240)
Next, you modify the tangents for keys 120 and 180 so the aircraft accelerates
and decelerates near those points on the path curve.
1 In the Graph Editor, shift-select only the two keys for frames 120 and
180.
6 Using the middle mouse button, drag the handle so the curve has a gentle
curvature as it leaves the key as shown below.
Modifying the tangent in this manner changes how the motion transitions
as the curve changes direction as it passes through the key. The aircraft
will accelerate smoothly instead of immediately travelling at a different
rate of speed.
9 Using the middle mouse button, drag the handle so the curve has a gentle
curvature as it enters the key as shown below.
Modifying this tangent for this key will cause the aircraft to decelerate
smoothly near the end of its travel.
11 Click play on the Time Slider’s playback control to play back the
animation.
8 To set the remaining keyframes for the rotation of the aircraft, use the
table below as a guide, keeping in mind that you set the keyframes in the
following order:
■ Set the frame in the Timeslider
9 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the
animation.
The aircraft rolls to one side (banks) as it travels along the motion path.
8 Right-click on the name, and choose Key Selected from the drop down
list that appears.
A keyframe is set for the aircraft.
■ Select only the channels for those values. Right-click on the selected
name and choose Key Selected.
Frame Select Set channel attrib- Choose
ute
2 Click play on the Timeslider playback controls to play back the animation.
The aircraft rises above the ground plane and then stops at frame 40.
2 In the Channel Box, ensure the blend values are set as follows:
■ BlendAddDoubleLinear: 0
■ BlendMotionPath: 0
4 Right-click on one of the names, and choose Key Selected from the drop
down list that appears.
■ BlendMotionPath1: 1
7 Right-click on one of the names, and choose Key Selected from the drop
down list that appears.
A key is set for the blend ending point for the aircraft. At frame 70 the
motion path animation will have full influence.
8 Click play on the Timeslider playback controls to play back the animation.
The two animation types are combined but the motion does not appear
correct. The aircraft rotation flips upward momentarily when it begins
to travel along the motion path.
The interpolation type for the rotations during the blending is not set
correctly.
2 Scroll the Channel Box so you can view the Attributes for pairBlend1.
5 Click on the Euler angles name in the Rot Interpolation attribute and
choose Quaternions.
6 Click play on the Timeslider playback controls to play back the animation.
The animation plays back smoothly. Observe how the blending also takes
into account the rotation of the aircraft so it meets up with the motion
path smoothly.
1 Select the path curve, and then select Display > Hide > Hide Selection to
hide the curve while you Playblast.
■ Create a motion path animation using a NURBS curve as the motion path.
When you draw your own curves remember that a curve has a defined
start and an end point based on how you create it. If your object is initially
positioned at the wrong end of the curve, you can reverse the direction of
the curve by setting the Menu Set to Modeling and then selecting Edit
Curves > Reverse Curve Direction.
If your objects are not oriented correctly on the path initially, you can
change the options in the Attach to Motion Path Options window. See
Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path in the Maya Help.
■ Adjust the timing and rotation of an object when it travels along the
motion path.
In this lesson you were shown how to keyframe the roll (bank) of the
aircraft. The Attach to Motion Path Options window provides an option
called Bank. The Bank option rotates an object as it travels around curved
portions of a motion path. It is useful for simple motion path animation.
■ Blend between keyframe and motion path animation types on the same
object.
For more information on how this works, see pairBlend in the Maya Help.
Introduction
Nonlinear animation tools in Maya® TraxTM give you the ability to experiment
with your animation sequences and character animations without having to
redo all of your work when you want to modify or construct a different
animation.
Nonlinear animation is a non-destructive process. You can modify a particular
clip’s attributes without affecting the source animation: the source material
remains untouched. This makes nonlinear animation useful when you want
to experiment, iterate, or change a particular animation sequence.
The primary tool for working with nonlinear animation is the Trax Editor.
You can also store your clips for future use by creating a library of clips.
In this lesson you learn how to:
■ Use the Trax editor to position, modify, and arrange clips in order to create
and modify animation sequences in the scene.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 199.
To work more efficiently with the scene and the Trax Editor, you need to set
a panel layout.
➤ From the perspective view’s menu, select Panels > Saved Layouts >
Persp/Trax/Outliner.
The panel layout updates to display the Perspective view, Outliner, and
Trax Editor simultaneously. This allows you to easily work with these
windows without having to open and close them repeatedly.
Next, set the Outliner so it displays clips. The Outliner allows you to manage
the various clips that get created with Trax.
1 In the Outliner menu, make sure that Display > DAG Objects Only is
unchecked.
1 From the perspective view’s panel menu, select Panels > Orthographic >
front.
The panel updates to display the aircraft’s side from the front view.
The aircraft is repositioned at -25 along the X axis. The aircraft disappears
from the front view because it has been repositioned outside of the
viewing area.
4 Dolly and track the front view until the aircraft appears on the lower left
hand side of the front view as shown below.
NOTE If you normally use the Auto Keyframe function, you must shut it off
for this lesson. For more information see Auto Key in the Maya Help.
6 In the Time Slider, set the current time indicator to frame 240.
The aircraft is repositioned at 25 along the X axis (the right hand side of
the current front view).
9 Right-click on the selected name and choose Key Selected from the
drop-down list that appears.
Key Selected sets a keyframe for only the selected attribute.
Confirm that the animation sequence works as expected in the steps that
follow.
1 Click play on the Time Slider’s playback control to play back the
animation.
Now that you have keyframed an animation sequence and confirmed that it
works, you can create an animation clip.
1 In the Trax Editor menu, with the aircraft still selected, select Create >
Animation Clip > .
2 In the Create Clip Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings, and then
click on the Create Clip button.
The Outliner updates and lists two items: clip1 and clip1Source. If the
clips do not display refer to To set the Outliner to display clips on page
241
When you created the clip, two clips were generated: a regular clip and a
source clip. The source clip contains the animation curves for the character
(based on the keyed attributes that the clip was created from). The source
clip is stored with the file and can only be accessed from the Visor or
Outliner. Maya saves the source clip outside of the Trax Editor to protect
the original animation curves from being accidentally modified and
ensures you have an unmodified clip to revert back to.
A regular clip (referred to simply as a clip) contains the same information
as the source clip, and is placed in a track in the Trax timeline. It is this
regular clip that you work with and modify in Trax.
3 In the Trax menu, with the aircraft selected, click the Load Selected
Characters icon.
The clip appears as a blue rectangular box in a track in the Trax Editor. A
track is an area in the Trax Editor to place and work with one or more
non-overlapping clips in relation to the animation timeline. Tracks allow
you to work with your clips in a nonlinear manner by allowing you to
reposition and scale clips in time or juxtapose them with other clips. You
can work with multiple tracks in the Trax Editor.
Anatomy of a clip
Every clip contains interaction controls that relate to information about the
clip:
■ Frame In and Frame Out indicates the current start and end frame numbers
for the clip in relation to its position on the timeline.
■ Duration indicates the length (duration) of the original source clip in frames.
■ Clip Name...the name of the clip. A default clip name is assigned to the
clip, unless you specify it from the Create Clip Options window when you
first create the clip.
■ Scale indicates the scale percentage for the clip. The scale percentage is the
multiplier on the length of the original clip. For example, if you scale a
clip fifty percent longer than its original length, the scale value would read
150%.
Each area on the clip has a hot spot which you can either double-click on for
numeric values, and in some cases, click-drag to modify the related attribute.
For example, you can double-click on the hot spot for the clip name to edit
the name. For more information about clips and tracks, see Track view area
in the Maya Help.
If you play this clip in Trax, the animation is played back from the clip data,
not the keyframe data that you set previously in the scene. When you created
the clip, the source of the animation for the aircraft was changed to come
from the clip instead of the keyframes.
When you create a clip, Maya creates a character set to contain the clip. A
character set is the parent of the hierarchy of clips and tracks for a particular
animated object. A clip’s animation resides under the character set node and
additional clips are placed under that node unless you specify otherwise.
4 Right-click on the name and choose Key Selected to set a keyframe for
this position.
Key Selected sets a keyframe for only the selected attribute.
5 In the Time Slider, drag the current time indicator to frame 60.
8 Right-click on the name and choose Key Selected to set a keyframe for
this position.
9 In the Trax Editor menu, with the aircraft selected, select Create >
Animation Clip (or click the Create Clip icon on the Toolbar).
11 Click play on the Time Slider’s playback control to play back the
animation.
2 In the Channel Box, with the aircraft still selected, set Translate Y to 7.
4 Right-click on the name and choose Key Selected to set a keyframe for
this position.
5 In the Time Slider, set the current time indicator to frame 240.
8 Right-click on the name and choose Key Selected to set a keyframe for
this position.
9 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the
animation.
The aircraft travels forward and then lands as it nears the end of its travel.
11 In the Trax Editor menu, with the aircraft selected, select Create >
Animation Clip.
The Trax Editor and Outliner update to show the new clip.
1 In the Trax Editor, move the mouse cursor over top of the Travel_Forward
clip.
When the mouse cursor is over top of a clip in the Trax Editor, the cursor
icon changes to a pointer indicating that you can drag the clip to either
side or up and down between tracks.
3 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the
animation.
The aircraft takes off vertically, then travels to the right, and lands while
it is still travelling to the right. Because the two clips (Travel_Forward
and Aircraft_Rise) are positioned one after the other, the actions occur
in a series versus simultaneously.
2 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the
animation.
The aircraft takes off vertically, then travels to the right, and then lands
vertically once the Travel_Forward clip’s motion is complete. Because the
three clips are positioned end to end in relation to the timeline, the
animation occurs as a series of separate events.
2 From the Trax menu, select View > Graph Anim Curves.
The Graph Editor appears.
3 In the Graph Editor, shift-select the two keys on the animation curve as
shown below.
8 Click play on the Time Slider’s playback control to play back the
animation.
The motion accelerates and decelerates at the beginning and end of each
clip. As a result, the motion appears more natural. It’s important to note
that the modified tangents for each clip are independent from the other
animation clips and do not affect any other motion.
1 From the Trax menu, select File > Import Animation Clip.
The File Browser appears. When importing a clip, the File Browser defaults
to the clip directory of your current project.
3 Select the file named Bank_Left.ma and click the Import button.
The clip is imported and appears in the Outliner named as
Bank_LeftSource to indicate it is a source clip.
NOTE When you import clips they also appear in, and can be accessed from,
the Visor (Window > General Editors > Visor). The Visor is a graphical interface
that allows you to import items that reside on disk or in your current file (
such as files, textures, clips, or poses). Clips that are assigned to a character
in Trax will appear listed under the Character Clips tab in the Visor. Clips that
have not yet been placed on a track will appear listed in the Visor under the
Unused Clips tab.
1 In the Outliner, using the middle mouse button drag the clip named
Bank_LeftSource into the same track as the Rise and Lower clips. Ensure
you drag into an open area on the track that the clip will fit into.
2 Position the Bank_Left clip on the track so its Frame In number matches
the Frame Out number on the Aircraft_Rise clip, as shown below.
3 Using the middle mouse button drag the clip named Bank_RightSource
from the Outliner into the same track as the Rise and Lower clips. Ensure
you drag into an open area on the track that the clip will fit into.
4 Position the Bank_Right clip on the track so its Frame In number matches
the Frame Out number on the Bank_Left clip, as shown below.
You can also drag clips from the Outliner or Visor into the Trax Editor and
create a new track for them to be placed in.
1 Drag the clip named Shift_Left1Source from the Outliner using the middle
mouse button, but this time, drag to the narrow blue area above the tracks
before releasing your middle mouse button.
2 Click-drag the Shift_Left clip so it lies directly below the Bank_Left clip
on the track above it.
Because the Shift_Left clip is positioned directly below the Bank_Left clip,
the actions will occur simultaneously when the animation is played back.
3 Using the middle mouse button drag the clip named Shift_Right1Source
from the Outliner into the same track as the Shift_Left clip . Ensure you
drag into an open area on the track.
4 Position the Shift_Right clip on the track so its Frame In number matches
the Frame Out number on the Shift_Left clip, as shown below.
5 In the front view menu, select Panels > Perspective > persp.
The view updates to display the aircraft from a perspective view.
7 Click play on the Time Slider’s playback control to play back the
animation.
After the aircraft rises, it travels forwards as before but now it shifts
sideways to the left while one wing tips downwards, and then shifts
sideways to the right, while the opposite wing tips downwards.
To solo a track
1 In the Trax control area, click the Solo button for the track that contains
the Aircraft_Rise and Bank_Left clips.
The other tracks dim to indicate that they will be disabled when the
animation is played back.
2 Click play on the Time Slider’s playback control to play back the
animation.
Muting a track disables only the selected track so it does not play back. Muting
is useful when you want to review the animation on one or more tracks
together without specific tracks being activated. You can mute one or more
tracks.
To mute a track
1 In the Trax control area, click the Mute button for the track that contains
the Shift_Left and Shift_Right clips.
The muted track dims to indicate it is disabled.
2 Click play on the Time Slider’s playback control to play back the
animation.
The aircraft rises and tilts left and right as it travels forward, and then
lowers. Because the Shift_Left and Shift_Right track is temporarily muted,
only the two remaining tracks affect the animation playback.
4 Unmute the track by clicking its mute button before proceeding to the
next section.
2 Using the clip manipulator, click-drag the right-hand scale handle to the
right until the Frame Out numbers on the Bank_Right and Shift_Right
clips match the Travel_Forward clip (Frame 299).
3 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the
animation.
When the aircraft travels, the sideways and banking motions occur over
the entire length of the Travel_Forward clip.
4 Click the stop button on the playback controls to stop the playback.
This completes the first half of the Trax lesson. In the second half of this lesson
you work with motion capture data in Trax.
The skeleton appears in the Maya scene in the standard da Vinci pose.
In this pose, the character stands straight with its arms extended out to
either side. This pose is useful when you need to skin a character, retarget
animation from one skeleton to another, or set a rest pose for the skeleton.
In this half of the lesson you learn how to use the Trax Editor to work
with motion capture data by extending and redirecting the motion for
a character.
NOTE If you are beginning the lesson from this point, you must first set your
panel layouts and display settings for the Trax Editor and Outliner. Refer to
To set a panel layout for use with the Trax Editor on page 241 and To set the
Outliner to display clips on page 241.
1 From the main menu, select Display > Animation > Joint Size.
The Joint Display Scale window appears.
1 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the
animation.
The skeleton is repositioned and then walks from left to right, stops, and
then sits.
4 In the Trax Editor menu, select Create > Animation Clip > .
The Create Clip Options window appears.
5 In the Create Clip Options window, click Edit > Reset Settings to set the
tool to its default settings, and then set the following:
■ Type WalkSit in the Name field.
The source clip appears in the Outliner named as WalkSitSource. (If you
use the Visor, the clip appears under the Character Clips tab.)
■ Creating a clip from the walking portion of the motion capture sequence
that can be repeated.
2 Drag the current time indicator forward in the Time Slider until you reach
frame 45.
At frame 45, the skeleton is posed in a similar manner as it appeared at
frame 6. If you use this range of frames (6 to 45), you can create a clip
that can be cycled.
4 In the Trax Editor menu, select Create > Animation Clip > .
The Create Clip Options window appears.
5 In the Create Clip Options window, click Edit > Reset Settings to set the
tool to its default settings, and then set the following:
■ Type WalkCycle in the Name field.
■ Start Time: 6
■ End Time: 45
6 In the Trax Editor, with the skeleton selected, click the Load Selected
Characters icon.
The clip named WalkCycle appears in a new track. Loading the Character
displays any tracks associated with the character; in this case the
WalkCycle clip.
8 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the clip.
The skeleton takes two steps and stops.
10 In the Trax Editor, drag the clip to the left in its track until the Frame In
number reads 1.
In the steps that follow, you cycle the clip to extend the animation so the
skeleton repeats the two step motion and travels farther in the scene.
1 In the Trax Editor, shift-drag the lower right corner of the Walk clip to
the right until a C2.0 number appears in the new region of the clip.
When you shift-drag over the Frame Out area, the mouse cursor changes
to a circular pointing arrow to indicate you are cycling the clip.
Setting the offset attributes for the clip to Relative ensures that each cycle
begins at the position where the last sequence left off. This ensures that
the skeleton doesn’t jump back to its start point after each cycle.
5 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the clip.
The skeleton takes six steps and then stops.
When the clip is cycled twice, the two-step walking motion occurs three
times in total.
6 Press stop on the playback controls to stop the playback and reset the
current time indicator to frame 1.
■ Select the entire skeleton. In this example, selecting the entire skeleton
selects it at the root joint (the top node of the skeleton’s hierarchy)
Selecting at the root joint ensures that the entire skeleton gets redirected
when the redirection control is applied.
■ Create and position a rotation redirection control using the Redirect tool.
■ Rotate the redirection control so the skeleton faces the new direction of
travel.
1 In the Time Slider, drag the current time indicator to frame 36.
This frame is where the ball of the skeleton’s right foot is planted on the
ground plane. Use this frame as the location where the skeleton will turn
to the right.
You want the skeleton to pivot (rotate) while standing on the ball of its right
foot. To do this, you need to move the redirection control to the ball of the
right foot of the skeleton.
2 Press the v key and click-drag the redirection control until it is located
on the ball of the right foot as shown below.
Pressing the v key while using the Move Tool momentarily enables the
Snap to Points tool.
2 In the Time Slider, drag the current time indicator to frame 57.
The skeleton updates to a position where its left foot is planted on the
ground plane. This is the location where you want the skeleton to be
rotated to its new direction of travel.
3 In the Channel Box, with the redirection control still selected, set the
Rotate Y attribute to -45.
4 Rotate the redirection control approximately -45 degrees about the Y axis
until the skeleton is facing in the direction shown below. (You can use
the Channel Box values as a guide.)
7 Click anywhere in the perspective view to deselect any items in the scene.
8 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the clip.
The skeleton takes two steps and then turns to its right after it reaches
the redirection control, and continues walking in the new direction of
travel and stops when it completes its walk cycle.
9 Press stop on the playback controls to stop the playback and reset the
current time indicator to frame 1.
1 In the Trax Editor, select Library > Insert Clip. Choose WalkSitSource
from the drop-down list.
A duplicate copy of the WalkSitSource clip is created, and inserted onto
a new track.
3 In the Trax control area, click the Mute button for the track that contains
the WalkCycle clip.
The muted track dims to indicate it is inactive. When the walk cycle track
is muted, the character updates to appear in the Da Vinci pose at the
origin based on the original source clip.
The WalkSit clip is trimmed and the portion of the clip before frame 98
is discarded.
7 Click the Mute button again for the track containing the WalkCycle clip
to reactivate the track.
The dimmed track becomes active again. The skeleton however has
updated to an incorrect pose near its previous position. This occurs
because the two active clips overlap, and the character is receiving
conflicting positional information as a result. (That is, double translation
and rotation information.)
8 Drag the WalkSit clip to the right in its track until its Frame In number
matches the Frame Out for the WalkCycle clip.
The pose for the skeleton is updated to the correct position.
10 Click play on the Time Slider playback controls to play back the
animation.
The skeleton takes two steps and then turns to its right after it reaches
the redirection control, and continues walking in the new direction of
travel, stops, and then sits.
A small jump cut occurs during the transition between the two clips. The jump
cut occurs because the poses for the skeleton do not match from the end of
the first clip and the beginning of the second. In your own work, try to
anticipate how motion will blend between clips when working in Trax. You
can correct the jump cut in this particular example by extending the WalkCycle
clip.
3 Drag the WalkSit clip to the right until its Frame In number becomes
126.
■ Create clips from your animation sequences for use in the Trax Editor.
■ Use the Trax editor to position, re-arrange, cycle, and scale clips in order
to create and modify animation sequences in the scene.
If a character animates or scales in a manner you had not expected when
working in Trax, you may want to check to see if the clips overlap or are
arranged in a manner that doesn’t provide the expected results. In addition,
a clip containing motion that is intended to be appended to another clip’s
motion must have its Offset attribute set to Relative, and Absolute Rotations
set to On (in most instances). There are many other tasks you can perform
with clips in the Trax Editor that are beyond the scope of this lesson. For
more information see Nonlinear animation components in Trax in the
Maya Help.
Blending clips
You can blend the animation between clips. Blends allow you to create smooth
transitions and mixes between different motions. A blend can be applied
between any two clips that overlap entirely, partially, or not at all. The best
results are obtained when blending between similar motions. In some
Time Warps
Time Warps let you change the timing of a clip without modifying the clip's
animation curves. You modify the Time Warp by editing the animation curve
that controls the warp. Time Warps can also be used to reverse the animation
in a clip. For more information see Create and edit time warps in the Maya
Help.
Audio clips
You can display and play multiple audio files in Trax allowing you to
synchronize your motion clips to specific audio events (sound effects, musical
notes, drum beats) in the audio file. Once you import an audio file into Trax,
you can then move and rename the audio clip. For more information see
Work with audio in the Maya Help.
Introduction
Inverse Kinematics (IK) allows you to efficiently pose your models and
characters for animation. You pose the skeleton by positioning IK handles,
usually located at the end of an IK joint chain (for example at the hand). The
rotations for the other joints are calculated automatically by an IK solver. An
IK solver calculates the rotations of each joint back up the hierarchy of the
joint chain based on the position of the IK handle. See Creating a skeleton
hierarchy on page 281 for more information on skeletons and joints.
By contrast, Forward Kinematics (FK) requires you to rotate each joint in turn
until you have the desired pose for a keyframe. This can be a tedious process
when posing a complex skeleton. When using Inverse Kinematics, it’s faster
to pose a character because the joint rotations further up the hierarchy are
calculated automatically based on the placement of the IK Handle. Using both
FK and IK techniques on the same skeleton is called FK/IK blending.
IK is obviously useful for posing animated characters that have a skeleton and
has other applications, such as posing skeletons within mechanical-like models.
The goal of this lesson is to animate a mechanical arm so that it extends into
a position over a cargo box, picks up and moves the cargo box to another
location, and then sets it down.
As you work through the lesson, you’ll learn about many of the basic features
related to skeleton hierarchies, IK, and parent constraints. Some initial setup
■ Combine the skeleton with the mechanical arm model by parenting the
components into a hierarchy.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 199.
To work with this model using IK you must create a hierarchy for it.
Understanding hierarchies
Inverse Kinematics relies on hierarchical relationships between the components
of a model and the IK system to pose and animate the components. Before
using Inverse Kinematics it is important to understand hierarchies in Maya.
A hierarchy is composed of a series of nodes that are combined for some
purposeful relationship. Individual nodes may represent the surfaces of a
model, a network of textures that describe a shading material, or series of
joints in a skeleton. Hierarchies are structured in a top-down manner, with
one node at the top (the parent node or root node) and other nodes (child nodes
or leaf nodes) attached and interconnected beneath the top node.
Selecting the parent node at the top of the hierarchy also selects the items
contained in the hierarchy below. Selecting a child node lower in the hierarchy
selects any child nodes that are lower in the hierarchy.
Hierarchies allow you to create complex structures with relationships between
components. For example, when you animate a hierarchical model, you simply
1 From the perspective view’s panel menu, select Panels > Layouts > Two
Panes Stacked.
The workspace displays two panels stacked on top of each other with an
identical perspective view of the scene.
2 In the lower panel, select Panels > Hypergraph Panel > Hypergraph
Hierarchy.
The lower panel displays the Hypergraph.
4 In the Hypergraph menu, select View > Frame All to see all the
components of your scene.
The boxes represent the nodes for the various items in the scene. Some items
in the scene have already been parented into a hierarchy. This is indicated by
the lines connecting some of the nodes. Selecting the nodes in the Hypergraph
also selects the item in the scene view.
To link the various components of the mechanical arm into a hierarchy that
can be posed, you need to create a skeleton. A skeleton is a hierarchy of joints
that are connected together with bones.
In the scene, a joint represents a special type of node that gets created in a
skeleton hierarchy. A joint acts as the parent node for any other joints that
occur in the hierarchy below it. Each joint has a rotational pivot point
associated with it. A bone is the visual representation used in the scene view
to connect the joints and help visualize the joint chain.
A skeleton is similar to a skeleton in the real world in that it acts as the
underlying structure for the surfaces to be attached. While you can view the
skeleton with its bones and joints in the scene view, it does not appear in your
rendered images. Its purpose is to assist you in setting up and posing your
models and characters and to visualize the motion you want to achieve.
1 In the perspective view menu, select Panels > Orthographic > side.
The view updates to display the side view.
You need to view the components of the mechanical arm fully in the
side view so you can draw the joints for the skeleton.
2 Resize the side view to a larger size by dragging the border between the
side and Hypergraph panel views downwards.
3 In the side view menu, select Shading > Wireframe (Hotkey 4).
6 In the side view, starting from the base of the mechanical arm, do the
following:
■ Click in the center of each pivot pin on the mechanical arm to place
four joints as shown in the image below.
Try to click as close to the center of each pivot pin as you can, as the
rotation of the joints on the model will be based on the location of the
joints on the skeleton. As you place the joints, a bone appears, connecting
each joint. (Because the model lies along the YZ plane, the joints are
created close to the center of each corresponding joint on the mechanical
arm model.)
■ After you place the fourth joint, press Enter to indicate that the last
joint has been placed.
9 Select joint2 (You can also press the down arrow on your keyboard to
select further down the hierarchy).
NOTE The following parenting procedure works well for the mechanical arm (no
organic bending or deformation occurs) and provides one technique for adding
modeled objects to a skeletal hierarchy.
A more common technique for combining a character model into a skeleton
hierarchy is referred to as skinning or binding. The Bind Skin tool combines the
surface components and joints together into a hierarchy and also takes into account
any deformations that may occur when a character bends or flexes (such as at the
knees, waist, neck, or elbows). Maya provides a few methods for skinning. For
more information see Skeletons and skinning in the Maya Help. For a tutorial on
skinning see the Smooth Skinning lesson in the Character Setup chapter in this
guide.
2 In the Hypergraph, select the node named ArmEnd and then shift-select
the node named joint4.
The order of selection is important. You want to select the child node
first, and then shift-select the item that will become the parent node
second.
In the next steps, SwivelBase becomes the parent node for the new
hierarchy so that the entire arm assembly swivels about the center of the
base component.
5 In the Hypergraph, select the node named joint1 and then shift-select
the node named SwivelBase.
7 In the side view menu, select Panels > Layouts > Two panes side by side.
The panels display in a side by side configuration.
It is now possible to select and rotate the skeleton joints to pose the mechanical
arm as a unit, and then set keyframes to animate it. Posing a character using
joint rotations is referred to as Forward Kinematics (FK). FK allows for precise
control when setting up a pose, but it can be a time consuming process to
select and rotate each joint into the desired position.
When an animation is more focused on the goal of placing the end joint in
a hierarchy in a particular position, (for example, a hand or a foot), it is more
NOTE It’s not a simple matter to state that one technique or another is the only
approach to achieving a desired result when animating in Maya. You must decide
whether a particular technique works for a particular scenario based on the options
it provides. A combination of animation techniques can be creatively used in a
variety of ways.
1 From the main menu, select Skeleton > IK Handle Tool > .
The IK Handle Tool Settings window for the Joint Tool appears. When
the mouse pointer is in the orthographic view its appearance changes to
the tool's cross hair cursor.
The ikSCsolver setting selects the IK Single Chain Solver. This solver
ensures that the joints in the skeleton will lie along a single plane. This
solver is well suited for the mechanical arm, because the arm doesn’t
need to twist, unlike a real arm.
3 Working in the side view, starting from the base of the mechanical arm,
do the following:
■ Click on the skeleton joint at the base of the mechanical arm.
■ Click on the skeleton joint at the tip of the mechanical arm. (The IK
Tool is designed to attach to the joints closest to your selection point.)
In the side view, the IK handle is drawn as a line from the start and end
joints of the IK chain.
6 Select the Move Tool from the Toolbox, and drag the Move Tool’s Z axis
manipulator (blue arrow) to reposition the mechanical arm.
When you drag the manipulator, the skeleton and mechanical arm model
are repositioned.
7 Reset the mechanical arm to its previous position by selecting Edit >
Undo, Redo, Repeat until the mechanical arm is positioned into its
previous orientation.
NOTE When using the Undo feature, do not undo so many times you
inadvertently undo the IK handle you’ve just created.
The next steps describe how to manipulate the IK Handle using a control
object.
3 In the side view, reposition the locator slightly above and in front of the
end of the mechanical arm as shown in the image below.
2 Type the name ArmControl and press Enter to save the name for the
locator.
Before you constrain the IK handle to the control object, you need to freeze
the transformations for the control object. Freeze Transformations zeros the
transformations for an object without changing the position of the object.
This is another good practice; If it becomes necessary to reset the arm to its
default position, you can set the transformation on the control object to zero,
and the arm will return to this default pose.
The transformations for ArmControl are set to zero. From this point
onwards, you can reset its position to this location by zeroing its
translations in the Channel Box.
5 In the side view, drag only the annotation so it appears slightly offset
from the locator object as shown below.
The annotation displays in any scene view so you can easily identify the
control object for selection.
The control object must be linked to the IK Handle to control the IK Handle.
Constraining an IK system
You can constrain the IK Handle to the control object (ArmControl) using a
point constraint. A point constraint allows the transformation attributes of one
object to be controlled by the transformations of another object. For example,
you select and position ArmControl without having to touch the IK Handle.
You also set the constraint so ArmControl maintains the current distance
(offset) from the IK Handle. The offset ensures that the constrained IK handle
doesn’t move to the same position as the control object.
1 In the Hypergraph, select the ArmControl node and then shift select the
ikHandle1 node.
The order of selection when applying a constraint is important: you must
select the constraining object first, and the item to be constrained second.
6 In the side view, drag the manipulator to reposition the control object.
(Experiment with a few different positions in the side view only.)
When you drag the manipulator, the control object moves, which in turn
moves the IKHandle. Because the IK handle controls the skeleton and
the mechanical arm model, they also move. The offset between the control
object and the IK Handle is maintained.
The Cargo Magnet does not continuously point downwards when rotated. Its
orientation is based on the rotation it had in its original position.
The mechanical arm will be easier to pose if you set Cargo Magnet to be
oriented downwards towards the floor of the scene regardless of the orientation
of the other components of the arm.
2 Open the Channel Box by clicking the Show/Hide Channel Box icon.
4 Close the Channel Box by clicking the Show/Hide Channel Box icon.
5 With only the ArmControl node selected, use the Move Tool to reposition
ArmControl in the side view.
In the next section, you learn how to limit the range of movement for the IK
system.
■ Lock the translation of the control object (ArmControl) so that it can only
move in Y and Z. By locking the X channel so it cannot be selected or
modified, the arm will not be able to move from side to side.
■ Lock the rotations on the swiveling base for the arm so it only rotates
about its Y axis, and not about its X or Z axes.
■ Limit the translations for the Arm Control so the mechanical arm cannot
fully extend to a straightened position.
2 Open the Channel Box to view the transform channels for ArmControl.
2 Open the Channel Box to view the rotation channels for SwivelBase.
4 Dolly the top view so you can fully view the mechanical arm as shown
below.
NOTE You may sometimes discover that something doesn’t work in the
manner you originally anticipated when setting up an IK system. When this
occurs, it’s useful to stop and diagnose why something is working the way
it is (or not working the way it should). In that way you can retrace your
actions to determine where the problem resides.
ArmControl and IK Handle are not parented into the SwivelBase hierarchy.
Because ArmControl and IK Handle control the movements of the mechanical
arm, they must be parented into the SwivelBase hierarchy in order for the arm
to rotate when SwivelBase is rotated.
Finally, you want to limit how far Arm Control can translate away from the
base of the model so the arm does not extend to a fully straightened position.
To determine the settings for the translation limits you need to examine the
position of the mechanical arm in various positions while simultaneously
viewing the translation values in the Channel Box.
2 Ensure the Channel Box is open so you can view the translate channels
for ArmControl.
4 Dolly the side view so you can fully view the mechanical arm.
6 In the side view, press the middle mouse button and drag the mouse
diagonally until the mechanical arm is fully extended as shown below.
7 In the Channel Box, observe the number that displays in the Translate
Y and Z channels.
When the arm is diagonally articulated above the cargo box, it is almost
fully extended when the translation values are roughly as follows:
■ Translate Y: 7.5
■ Translate Z: 1
8 In the side view, press the middle mouse button and drag the mouse in
a diagonally until the mechanical arm is almost fully compressed as
shown below.
■ Translate Z: -13
These minimum and maximum values will be used in the steps that
follow as the minimum and maximum translation limits for the
ArmControl.
2 Open the Attribute Editor (Window > Attribute Editor or click on the
Show/Hide Attribute Editor icon on the Status Line).
The Attribute Editor displays the nodes associated with Arm Control.
7 Select ArmControl.
8 In the side view, move ArmControl to test the range of movement for
the IK system.
The mechanical arm moves with a limited range of motion.
1 In the side view menu, select Shading > Smooth Shade All.
2 In the side view menu, select Panels > Perspective > persp.
■ Translate Z: 0
The arm is repositioned so that the cargo magnet is directly above the cargo
box as shown below. Track, tumble, or dolly the view if required so you can
see the mechanical arm unobstructed.
The mechanical arm and the cargo box are positioned as shown below.
CargoBox has two parent constraints applied to it: Arm Control and
Platform. In the Channel Box, the numerical settings beside ArmControl
W0 and Platform W1 represent the influence weight each parent
constraint has on CargoBox. At this point, each influence weight is set
Before you can animate the objects in the scene, you also need to reset the
default weight values for each constraint, so that one parent constraint has
full influence on CargoBox when the other does not.
At this point, both parent constraints are set to have no influence on the
cargo box because their weight attributes are set to zero. When you
animate the components in the scene, the weight attributes for the parent
constraints will be set and keyframed depending on which constraining
object (Arm or Platform) is required to have full influence.
In the next steps, you plan the action for animation of the IK system.
■ The mechanical arm extends, and positions the cargo magnet to be directly
touching the top of the cargo box.
■ The mechanical arm extends upwards, lifting the cargo box, and rotates
to the side.
■ The mechanical arm extends upwards, leaves the cargo box in the new
location, and rotates back to its original position.
The table below breaks down the action indicating what action occurs for
each object at the specified keyframes.
Animating an IK system
The animation sequence occurs over a 180 frame period. Before you begin to
set keyframes you set the playback range in the Animation Timeline/Slider.
➤ In the Animation Time and Range Slider, set the following start and end
times for the animation:
■ Playback Start Time: 1
To simplify the keyframe workflow, you first set keyframes for the mechanical
arm, and then set keyframes for the weight attributes of each parent constraint
for the cargo box.
■ Translate Z: -13
NOTE Don’t be concerned if the list of keyframes indicates to set a key twice
for the same position over two frames. This is necessary to animate the parent
constraint weights over a period of one frame.
Once the keyframes for the mechanical arm are set you can use the playback
controls to playback the motion for the mechanical arm.
In the next steps, you set keyframes for the parent constraint weight attributes
so the cargo box is lifted, moved, and placed in the second location. You set
keys for the weight attributes on the parent constraint node.
2 In the Hypergraph, select the node for the parent constraint directly
below CargoBox.
3 In the Channel Box, set the following values (if they are not set already):
■ ArmControl W0: 0
■ Platform W1: 0
To set the remaining keyframes for the parent constraint weights, use the table
below as a guide, keeping in mind that you set the attributes in the following
order:
1 Click play on the TimeSlider playback controls to play back the animation.
The mechanical arm moves through the motion of the animation and
picks up and moves the cargo box to the new location.
■ Construct a single chain skeleton to pose the arm model using Inverse
Kinematics.
It is common to create characters with multiple joint chains. For example,
two and four-legged characters would use multiple joint chain skeletons
to assist with posing their hierarchical structure. See Skeleton hierarchy in
the Maya Help. For a tutorial on creating a multiple chain skeleton see
Lesson 1: Skeletons and Kinematics (Introduction on page 318).
■ Parent the components of the mechanical arm model into the skeleton
hierarchy.
Parenting is one method for combining a model into a skeleton hierarchy.
When using characters that have bending or deforming features a more
common technique is to use Skin > Bind Skin. For more information see
Skeletons and skinning in the Maya Help. For a tutorial on smooth skinning
see Lesson 2: Smooth Skinning (Introduction on page 318).
An easy method to parent one node to another using the Hypergraph is
to drag one node over top of the other using your middle mouse button.
■ Creating a skeleton with joints that acts as a framework for the 3D character
model. You set limits on the joints so they rotate in a convincing manner.
When you animate the character, you will be posing the character via its
joints using either forward or inverse kinematic techniques (FK or IK).
■ Binding the 3D surfaces to the skeleton so that they move together. The
process of binding may also include defining how the character’s joints bend
or how the skin surfaces bulge to simulate muscles.
■ Grouping surface components such as CVs into sets called clusters so that
parts of the character can be animated at a more detailed level.
This chapter introduces you to the most common character setup features:
317
■ Lesson 2 Smooth skinning: Introduction on page 333
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
3 Make sure that Soft Selection is turned off by opening the Attribute Editor
with the Select Tool active and unchecking the box marked Soft Select.
Introduction
After you model the surfaces that make up a human, animal, or other character,
you create a skeleton and bind it to the character’s surface (called skin).
A skeleton provides a structure for animating the character. When you create
a skeleton in Maya, you create a series of bones with joints in the skeletal
locations where you want the character to bend or twist. (You can animate a
skeleton without having a skinned character.)
In this lesson, you learn the techniques for creating a simple skeleton for a
human character. You will learn how to:
In this lesson, you’ll work with a scene that we created for your use. The scene
contains a human character. In the remainder of the lesson, you’ll create and
animate a skeleton for the character.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 318.
Creating joints
A skeleton is made of bones and joints. When you create a skeleton in Maya,
you create a series of joints in the skeletal locations where you want the
character to bend or twist.
A common technique for creating a skeleton is to create several independent
joint chains—one for each arm, one for each leg, one for the spine/head—then
group the chains together to create a single skeletal hierarchy. In the steps
that follow, you create the joints for the legs.
NOTE The default joint size of 1.0 has been used to create the joints pictured
in the following illustrations. The joints you create may appear smaller than
those pictured in this lesson.
2 Select Skeleton > Joint Tool. This is the tool for creating the joint chains
that make up a skeleton.
3 In a side view, click at the hip, knee, ankle, ball of foot, and toe to create
joints at these positions. Make sure the knee joint is in a position that
creates a slight forward bend. The forward bend ensures that you will be
able to animate the leg easily in a direction natural for a leg.
7 In the front view, click the left_hip joint to select it. Move it along the
X-axis to the center of the top of the left leg. (In this lesson, left and right
refer to directions from Jackie’s point of view, not from your view of the
scene.)
As mentioned before, when you move a joint, all joints lower in the
hierarchy move with it. If you press Insert (Windows and Linux) or Home
(Mac OS X) while a joint is selected, you can move the joint without
NOTE You may need to rotate left_hip so that the skeleton fits inside the leg.
It’s unnecessary to fit the skeleton perfectly inside the character, as it won’t
be displayed when you render an image from the scene.
8 To create the joints for the other leg, you can save time and ensure
symmetry by duplicating the existing leg joint chain with mirroring.
With left_hip selected, select Skeleton > Mirror Joint > . In the options
window, turn on YZ for Mirror Across.
Jackie’s legs straddle the YZ plane, so mirroring the joint chain across the
YZ plane positions the duplicate joint chain in the desired location. This
operation illustrates that Jackie’s original position affects the ease with
which you can create the skeleton. Had Jackie been positioned away from
the origin, you would not have been able to use Mirror Joint conveniently
to duplicate the leg’s joint chain.
9 Enter left in the Search For field and enter right in the Replace With field.
The Replacement names for duplicated joints feature automatically
replaces the names of all duplicate joints with the specified joint prefix.
In the next steps, you create a joint chain for the spinal column. You also
extend a joint from the upper neck region of the joint chain so that you can
animate the jaw.
1 In the side view, use the Joint Tool to create a series of joints at the
locations shown here. Start at the base of the spine near the existing hip
joints (left_hip and right_hip) and end at the top of the head. Make sure
you create the first joint a little bit away from the existing hip joint
displayed in the front view. Otherwise the first joint will be connected
to the hip joint. Remember to press Enter (Windows and Linux) or Return
(Mac OS X) when you are done creating the joint chain.
With the exception of the joints at each end of the joint chain, the joints
are located where the character is likely to bend or twist at the spine and
neck.
The S-shaped curvature of the joint chain resembles Jackie’s spinal
curvature. This makes it easier to animate the character’s torso and neck
naturally.
3 To set up the skeleton for jaw movement, extend a joint from the
upper_neck joint. With the Joint Tool selected, click the upper_neck joint
in the Hypergraph to select it, then click to create a new joint near the
lips, and press Enter or Return. Name the new joint as jaw.
Creating joints for the arms is similar to creating joints for the legs.
1 In the front view, create a series of joints at the locations shown in the
figure. Start at the pectoral region (near the upper_back joint) and end
at the wrist.
3 In the top view, select the left_elbow joint, select the Move tool, press
Insert (Windows and Linux) or Home (Mac OS X), then move the joint
to the back of the arm. Press Insert or Home again.
1 In the Hypergraph, click the mid_back joint to highlight the joint in the
front view. Remember the location of the joint in the front view so you
can select it later.
4 Click to the side of the joint to add a rib bone, then press Enter (Windows
and Linux) or Return (Mac OS X).
5 With the same technique as in the prior steps, create two more ribs for
the left side. The ribs extend from the mid_back, lower_back, and pelvis
joints.
6 For easy identification in the Hypergraph, you can optionally name the
ribs as desired. For instance, name them left_top_rib, left_mid_rib,
left_bottom_rib, and so on.
7 Mirror the left rib joints to create ribs for the right side of the skeleton.
1 Select the root of the hierarchy, back_root, and then select Skeleton > Set
Preferred Angle.
This sets the current joint angles throughout the skeleton as the preferred
angles. This is a useful step after you complete a skeleton. Maya thereafter
uses the current bend in the knees and elbows as the preferred initial
rotation direction of these joints during inverse kinematics (IK) posing.
2 Select Jackie in the Outliner and, from the main menu, select Display >
Hide > Hide Selection. (You must select Jackie from the Outliner because
Jackie is a template object.) By hiding Jackie, you’ll lessen scene clutter
as you pose the skeleton in the following steps.
2 In the Tool Settings window, make sure Current Solver is set to ikRPsolver.
This type of IK solver has characteristics that work well for this
application.
5 With the IK handle selected, select Animate > Set Key to key the leg’s
current position at the first frame.
6 Go to frame 12.
7 In the side view, use the Move tool to drag the IK handle up and to the
left, as if Jackie were stepping up a staircase. The foot and knee move
while the hip stays in place.
9 Go to frame 24. Move the IK handle back to its prior position. Set another
key.
10 Play the animation to see the leg step up and down during the first 24
frames.
This completes a simple animation of the leg using an IK handle to control
its position.
3 Repeat the preceding steps for the right leg. (Create an IK handle for the
right_hip to right_ankle, then practice posing and animating the handle.)
NOTE If you want to move the entire skeleton, group the back_root and all
IK handles under a single node, select the group node, and then use the
Move tool. With this grouping, the motion of the entire skeleton won’t conflict
with the keys you set for the handles.
■ As you created the skeleton in this lesson, you ended the arm’s joint chain
at the wrist. This prevents you from animating hand motion. If you need
to animate hand motion or even finger motion, you would need to make
additional joints and IK handles. The same applies to foot and toe motion.
■ It’s typically best to animate the entire skeleton from pose to pose at desired
frames. It’s hard to get desired results by animating one limb for a frame
range, another limb for a frame range, and so on.
There are many other ways to work with skeletons not described in this lesson:
■ There are other types of IK handles that provide different controls for
manipulating parts of a skeleton. Especially noteworthy is the IK spline
handle, which makes it easy to animate the twisting, wavy motion in tails,
necks, spines, snakes, and so on.
For more details on these and other features, please refer to the Maya Help.
Introduction
After you create a skeleton, you bind it with the character’s surface so that the
surfaces move with the skeleton during animation. Binding is also called
skinning, and a character’s surface after binding is called a skin.
It is important that the character’s skin deforms naturally as the skeleton
moves. Near joints, the skin bulges or indents when you rotate the joints.
In Maya, the skin deforms because the surface’s vertices (or CVs) move in
response to the rotation of adjacent joints. The vertices are known as skin
points. This is useful for animating elbows, shoulders, necks, and so on.
By default, the influence a joint has on a skin point’s movement depends on
how close it is to that joint. You can edit skin point weighting to change the
default movement.
In this lesson you learn how to:
In this lesson, you work with a scene we created for your use. The scene
contains a human character and skeleton. Each leg and arm of the skeleton
has an IK handle that lets you pose the limbs conveniently. If you completed
the prior lesson, the character, skeleton, and IK handles will be familiar.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 318.
1 Select Jackie.
4 In the Smooth Bind Options window, set Max Influences to 3, then click
Bind Skin.
A Max Influences value of 3 specifies that three joints influence each skin
point. By default, the joint closest to the point has the most influence.
The second most influential joint is that joint’s parent or child joint,
whichever is closest to the point. The third most influential joint is the
nearest parent or child of the second joint. The influence drops with the
distance from the joints. The amount of influence each joint has on any
skin point is the skin weight.
The default skin weights create smooth deformations of the skin at elbows,
knees, and elsewhere as the nearby joints rotate.
5 Select and move any or all of the four IK handles to pose the arms and
legs in various positions in order to get used to posing with the IK handles.
To select an IK handle, drag a selection box around a wrist or ankle joint.
To move a handle, use the Move tool to drag the handle in the desired
direction.
Note that you can also select the IK handles in the Hypergraph. The
handles are indented under jackieSkeleton. Each is named for a leg or
arm, for example, ikHandleLeftLeg. For more details on IK handles, see
Lesson 1: Skeletons and kinematics on page 318.
6 If you prefer to turn off the skin’s transparency so you can see the skin
more clearly, turn off Shading > X-Ray. Do not be concerned that the
skeleton pokes through the skin, as the skeleton is not displayed in a
rendered image.
As you pose the arms and legs, examine the skin in the regions where
joints bend. For many poses, the skin looks natural. For others, the skin
folds, compresses, or bulges unnaturally. The pelvis, shoulders, and torso
are common problem areas for various poses. For example, if you move
an arm straight up, the shoulder compresses as in the following figure.
1 Pose the left arm similar to the following figure. The left breast becomes
irregularly shaped.
3 Select Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Paint Skin Weights Tool > .
4 In the Influence list of the Tool Settings window, select any joint, for
instance, pelvis. The grayscale color of Jackie’s skin indicates how much
influence that joint has on the skin’s deformation.
White means the skin is maximally influenced by the joint. Black means
the skin is not influenced by the joint. Gray means the influence is partial.
The lighter the gray, the more the influence.
Each point on the surface is influenced by three joints, as specified by
the Max Influence setting in a prior step. However, one or two of the
three joints might have so little influence as to be insignificant.
In general, a white region of skin is influenced nearly entirely by the joint
selected in the Influence section of the Tool Settings window. A gray
region is influenced significantly by one or two additional joints.
The reason the left breast becomes irregularly shaped as you pose the arm
is that some joint is exerting too much or too little influence on the
breast.
5 Select each entry in the Influence list to determine which joints are
influencing the irregular region of the breast. The region will be a shade
of gray (or white) when you select the appropriate joints. The
left_arm_root is the main influence. The upper_back, mid_back, and
left_top_rib also have influence, though not exactly in the same region.
2 In the Paint Weights Menu section of the window, set Value to 0.1 and
turn on Add.
3 Drag the mouse pointer to paint the irregular region of the breast. Each
stroke adds 0.1 (10%) to the skin weight. The weight for a skin point has
a maximum value of 1 (fully white).
TIP Painting skin weights using a tablet with stylus allows you to take
advantage of pressure sensitivity.
Repeat the strokes several times until the irregular region becomes
smoother. The jagged, asymmetrical wireframe at the breast becomes
more symmetrical as the skin becomes smoother. The region whitens,
which indicates increased influence from the left_arm_root joint. Note
that increasing the influence of one joint lessens the influence of the
other influencing joints.
4 To check the shape with full-color shading, click the Select Tool. (You
might also prefer to cancel the selection of Jackie to eliminate the display
of the highlighted wireframe.)
■ You can use the Scale operation with a Value less than 1 to scale down
the point weights of a stroked region.
■ As you stroke a region, the red circle icon displays the radius of the
region affected by the stroke. The Radius(U) value changes the radius.
■ You can select any of the Profile icons to specify the region affected
by strokes. The two leftmost icons are the most commonly used shapes.
6 (Optional) If you want more practice, pose the right arm as you posed
the left arm and fix the corresponding irregular region in the right breast.
This time, fix the region by modifying the weights for the upper_back
joint rather than the right_arm_root. As mentioned previously, you can
modify point weights of alternative joints to get a similar effect.
7 After you eliminate the irregular region from the left breast, move the
arm to different positions to see if the breast’s shape stays natural in
various poses. It is common for a surface to look good in one pose but
Influence objects
You can create an object and use it to influence the shape of smooth skin.
The object, called an influence object, acts like a surgical implant against
which the skin deforms. For example, you can create a sphere and use it to
simulate a muscle or bone that bulges as you pose the character in certain
positions. You can also use an influence object to smooth deformation and
maintain volume in regions that collapse while bending.
In the next steps, you’ll use a sphere as an influence object to simulate an
elbow jutting out as Jackie’s arm bends. To use an influence object, the skeleton
must be in the bind pose—the original pose at which the skin was bound to
Jackie.
2 Create a sphere (select Create > Polygon Primitives > Sphere >) and name
it elbow_influence.
3 Scale the sphere to be slightly smaller than any of Jackie’s joints (see
illustration below).
4 Move the sphere so that its surface is positioned where the elbow would
jut out, but still within the skin. You can optionally reshape the sphere’s
curvature to resemble the tip of an elbow jutting out from a bent arm.
For example, you can scale the sphere in one dimension to squash its
shape or you can move individual vertices. A top view of the sphere’s
shape and position follows:
The exact position and scale of the sphere is unimportant. You can make
slight position and scale adjustments later to enhance the deformations
that result from its use.
2 Select Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Add Influence > . In the Add Influence
Options, select Edit > Reset Settings, and then click the Add button.
Maya completes the operation within a few moments. To ensure the
influence object stays in the correct position at the elbow, you will parent
it to the left_shoulder joint.
6 From the menus at the top of the top view, turn off Show > Joints to
avoid having the joints obstruct your view of the skin.
7 Use each arm’s IK handle (ikHandle1 and ikHandle2) to pose the arms
in the following position.
The left elbow looks more natural than the right elbow. To tune the
elbow’s deformation during bending, change the position, scale, and
rotation of elbow_influence.
Do not be concerned if the influence object pokes through the skin. It
won’t be displayed when you render the animation.
■ Use the Paint Skin Weights Tool to prevent a region from collapsing upon
deformation.
To control skin weights with more precision than shown in the lesson,
you can modify skin weights numerically with the Window > General
Editors > Component Editor. If you smooth skin multiple surfaces which
have been seamed together, there are many tool settings for the Paint Skin
Weights Tool that make the task easier.
Skin weights and influence objects cannot overcome all modeling problems.
For instance, if you further separate Jackie’s legs sideways, you will see an
undesirable fold at the hips. This occurs because of the asymmetrical
arrangement of polygonal edges in the hip region of the original model. To
fix the problem, you would need to detach the skin, alter the original model,
then smooth bind the model again.
Maya has an alternative skinning method, rigid skinning, which gives results
similar to smooth skinning but requires use of different enhancement tools:
flexor and lattice deformers. In general, smooth skinning gives more natural
deformations with less effort than rigid skinning. If you skin multiple seamed
surfaces, however, processing is faster with rigid skinning than with smooth
skinning.
Smooth skinning is just one of the techniques for perfecting a character’s
deformations during animation. You can use Maya’s other deformers alone
or in addition to smooth skinning to achieve the results you want.
For more information, please refer to Smooth skinning in the Maya Help.
Introduction
Facial animation is an integral component of character animation. The face
of a character can be animated to impart a range of emotions and expressions.
Maya has two deformation tools that ease character setup for facial animation:
cluster deformers and blend shape.
Cluster deformers enable you to control a set of an object's points (CVs,
vertices, or lattice points) with varying amounts of influence to create a target
shape for an animation.
A Blend Shape deformer provides an interface for blending between various
target shapes, to control the range of movement for the cluster on an object
or face.
In this lesson, you will be introduced to cluster deformers in order to shape
a characters mouth into a smile pose. You will learn to use the Blend Shape
feature so you can animate the face from a neutral pose to a smile. In this
lesson, you learn how to:
■ Use the cluster deformer handle to adjust the position of a cluster deformer.
■ Use the Paint Cluster Weights Tool to refine the cluster weight values.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 318.
1 Using the Outliner, select only the face. That is, select only the head
surface without the eyes.
In the Outliner, the face is named baseFace and is indented under head.
2 Select Edit > Duplicate Special > . In the options window, select Edit
> Reset Settings, turn on World for the Group Under option, then click
the Duplicate Special button. By grouping the duplicate under the world,
you create an object independent of the original.
3 Move the duplicate face to a position where both faces are visible for
comparison, for instance, to the right side of head.
1 Position the mouse pointer over the face. Right-click to select Vertex,
then select the smilingFace vertices shown in the following illustration,
which are roughly the vertices at the chin, cheeks, and lips (but not the
nose):
TIP An easy way to select the vertices is to use the Paint Selection Tool. First,
right-click smilingFace in the scene view and select Vertex from the marking
menu. Next, select the Paint Selection Tool by double-clicking the icon in
the Toolbox to display the Paint Selection Tool settings.
In the settings window, set Radius(U) to 0.2. Drag the mouse over the desired
vertices to select them. Ctrl-drag (Windows and Linux) or Control-drag (Mac
OS X) to cancel the selection of unwanted vertices. Close the Tool Settings
window when you are done.
Make sure you don’t select vertices at the back of the head inadvertently.
Also make sure you don’t inadvertently miss a few vertices in the region
you select.
4 Use the Move tool to drag the cluster handle up along its Y-axis a small
amount until smilingFace is deformed as follows:
The cluster set on smilingFace should be slightly higher than the cluster
on the original face. This will become the basis for the blend shape
deformer.
1 Select smilingFace.
The white area shows the points that make up the cluster. The whiteness
also indicates the weights—how much the points move in response to
the movement of the cluster handle. White indicates a cluster weight of
1—the points move the same distance as the handle. By default, each
point has a weight of 1.
Black indicates a cluster weight of 0. The points do not move in response
to cluster handle movement. Note that regions that are not part of the
cluster are also black.
Although there are no gray regions currently, gray means the movement
is partial. The lighter the gray, the more the movement. Gray regions
indicate a cluster weight between 0 and 1.
3 In the Paint Attributes Section of the Tool Settings window, set the
following:
■ Paint Operation: Replace
■ Value: 0.5
5 To check the shape with full-color shading, click the Select Tool. (You
might also prefer to cancel the selection of smilingFace to eliminate the
display of the highlighted wireframe.)
6 To return to the Paint Cluster Weights Tool, select smilingFace and Edit
Deformers > Paint Cluster Weights Tool > again.
■ Opacity: 0.3
An Opacity of 0.3 scales down the effect of painting weight values so
you can build up values gradually with repeated strokes.
■ Value: 1
A Value of 1 sets the weight value you paint on the points.
8 Paint the region at the corners of the mouth with repeated strokes until
the face looks roughly like the following figure. If your results differ from
the figure significantly, undo the strokes and try again.
9 Enter a Value of 0.25 and paint the central region above and below the
lips as follows:
Because the corners of the mouth have a high weight and the central
region around the lips have a low weight, the corners move up more in
response to the prior positioning of the cluster handle. This creates a
smiling mouth. The cheeks and chin have a medium weight, so they also
10 In the tool settings editor for the Paint Cluster Weights Tool, set the Paint
Operation to Smooth. Paint any region where the surface has become
irregular. Irregular regions are typically indicated by jagged wireframe
curves (isoparms) or where a grayscale color makes an abrupt change to
a lighter or darker color. Smoothing averages the weights of the stroked
points with the weights of the surrounding region. The Value setting has
no effect on smoothing.
11 Replace and smooth weights in other regions of the face until you are
satisfied with the smile. For example, you might want to reduce the weight
values at the side of the nose and immediately below the nose.
Your smilingFace should now have a slight smile as a result of your cluster
weight edits.
3 In the Blend Shape node text box, type blendShape, then click Create.
5 Cancel the selection of the faces so you can see the surfaces without the
obscuring highlighted wireframe.
6 Drag the slider from 0 to 1 to morph the baseFace into the target,
smilingFace.
Note that you can click the Key button below the slider to set an
animation key for the shape of the face at the current frame. By setting
a few keys with different slider values at different points in the timeline,
you can animate from the neutral expression to a full or partial smile or
vice versa.
When you key the shape, Maya applies the key to the blendShape node
that was created when you selected Create Deformers > Blend Shape >
. If you need to select the blendShape node, for instance, so you can
see or delete the keys in the Time Slider, click the Select button in the
Blend Shape editor.
■ In the box below the slider of the Blend Shape editor, you can enter a
numerical value below 0 to invert the deformations, or above 1 to amplify
the deformations. For example, -1 creates a frown, while 1.6 creates a
brimming smile:
■ With or without changing the Blend Shape slider, you can move, rotate,
and scale the cluster handle to modify the blend shape. The following
figure shows some examples. The face you created will be slightly different
because your original smile is different.
■ You can use the Paint Cluster Weights tool again to change cluster weights
when the cluster and blend shape editing deforms certain regions
1 Set the Blend Shape editor slider value to 0 to return baseFace to the
position it had at the beginning of the lesson.
4 In the perspective view, select Show > Isolate Select > View Selected. Select
this menu item again in the front view.
This displays only the selected object (raisedBrow) in the views. This is
necessary to avoid selecting unwanted vertices in the next steps. The
view’s label indicates isolate is turned on.
5 In the front view, position the pointer over the face, right-click and select
Vertex. Drag a selection box around the vertices in the region of the
eyebrows and forehead as shown below.
6 In the side view, hold down the Ctrl (Windows and Linux) or Control
(Mac OS X) key and drag a selection box around the vertices at the side
of the head to turn off their selection (see the following figure).
7 Switch to wireframe display mode and dolly the camera from various
close-up views to make sure you select all the vertices on and under the
eyebrow. If you miss a few vertices, subsequent deformations will not
work correctly. Also, make sure you don’t select vertices at the side or
back of the head.
9 In the perspective view, turn off the selection of Show > Isolate Select >
View Selected. Do this again in the front view.
By turning off these menu selections, Maya displays all objects in the
views again.
10 In the perspective view, drag the cluster up along its Y-axis a small amount
until raisedBrow looks like the face on the left:
2 Select Edit Deformers > Blend Shape > Add > . In the options window,
turn on Specify Node and enter blendShape in the BlendShape Node box.
Click the Apply and Close button.
When you created the blend shape for the smile, Maya created a node
named blendShape that contains the slider attributes that adjust the
blend into the smilingFace target. The Add operation creates a blend
shape for the raisedBrow and adds it to the blendShape node. This adds
a slider to the node’s Blend Shape editor for adjusting the raised brow
deformations.
3 To display the Blend Shape editor, select Window > Animation Editors
> Blend Shape.
5 You can optionally select raisedBrow and edit the cluster weights to tune
the deformation of the eyebrow region as desired. See Editing cluster
weights on page 348 for details. An example weighting follows:
There are some additional notes on clusters which are not explained in this
lesson:
■ You can add or remove vertices from a cluster with Edit Deformers > Paint
Set Membership Tool.
■ You can use the Component Editor to edit weight values more precisely
than by painting.
■ Avoid changing the number of vertices (or CVs) for a surface after you
apply a cluster or other deformer. Unexpected deformations may occur.
Texture maps let you modify the appearance of your 3D models and scenes in
Maya. Texture maps are images you apply and accurately position onto your
surfaces using a process called texture mapping. When an image is texture mapped
onto a surface, it alters the appearance of the surface in some unique way.
Texture maps let you create many interesting visual effects:
■ You can apply surface relief details and features to a surface instead of having
to model the details on the surface directly.
361
Most shading attributes for a surface material can be altered by a texture map.
For example, color, specular, transparency, and reflectivity are examples of
attributes that can be modified by a texture map.
Texture mapping is a key component in the 3D production workflow. Many
production environments employ texture artists whose only role is to create
and apply the texture maps to 3D models.
2 Make sure the Construction History icon (below the menu bar) is on:
3 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
4 Select the Polygons menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions in
this chapter for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected
the Polygons menu set.
5 Make sure Display > UI Elements > Help Line is turned on. You will use
the Help Line while modeling.
6 Ensure that the interactive creation option for primitives is turned off by
selecting Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation. The option
is off when a check mark does not display beside the item’s name in the
menu.
7 Make sure that Soft Selection is turned off by opening the Attribute Editor
with the Select Tool active and unchecking the box marked Soft Select.
Introduction
■ Correlate the UVs between the scene view and the UV Texture Editor.
■ Set preferences to let you visualize the texture borders in both the UV
Texture Editor and the scene view to better understand how the texture
map is placed on the polygonal model.
2 In the Polygon Cube Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings, set
the following options, and then click Create:
■ Width: 8
■ Height: 10
■ Depth: 3
■ Width divisions: 1
■ Depth divisions: 1
■ Axis: Y
■ Create UVs: On
■ Normalize: Off
3 Using the Channel Box, set the Translate Y attribute to 5 so that the
cracker box is repositioned to rest on the X axis.
1 In the scene view, select Shading > Smooth Shade All from the panel
menu.
This displays the cracker box with a default gray, smooth shading material,
lit using default lighting. Turning on Smooth Shade All displays the
assigned shading material you apply to the cracker box in the steps
following.
2 In the scene view, right-click on any region of the cracker box and select
Assign New Material > Lambert from the marking menu.
A new Lambert shading material is created and assigned to the cracker
box. The Attribute Editor appears and displays the various attributes for
the new Lambert shading material.
Renaming the shading material lets you easily identify it later on when
you need to edit it. Naming items uniquely in Maya is a useful habit.
4 In the Attribute Editor, move the Color slider fully to the right so that the
color box appears white.
The shading material assigned to the box model also updates in the scene
view so it appears in a brighter tone.
TIP If the Attribute Editor suddenly appears empty, it indicates that no objects
are selected in the scene. Simply select the box model again in the scene to
display the attributes for the box.
7 Click the Browse button (folder icon) to the right of the Image Name
attribute to specify the image file for the texture map.
9 In the scene view, select Shading > Hardware Texturing from the panel
menu to display the texture map on the cracker box model.
➤ In the scene view, right-click any of the Quick Layout buttons on the
Toolbox to display the pop-up menu of Quick Layout shortcuts and select
Persp/UV Texture Editor from the list.
UVs do not initially appear in the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor until you
select an object or change the selection mode for an object in the scene view.
1 In the scene view, right-click any region of the cracker box model and
select Object Mode from the marking menu.
3 In the UV Texture Editor, dolly the view outwards so you can see the UVs
for the cracker box as shown below. (To dolly, press the Alt key and drag
the mouse to the left while holding down the right button on your
mouse.)
The UV texture coordinates for the cracker box model appear in the 2D
view of the UV Texture Editor as a flattened, two-dimensional
representation. The UVs appear highlighted with lines connecting the
UVs to indicate the region of the texture the UVs represent.
The image you specified as the texture map for the box also appears in
the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor in the upper right quadrant of the
2D cartesian graph called the UV image range or UV Texture Space. The
coordinates for this quadrant range from 0,0 to 1,1 and represent the
texture space for the surface. How the UVs appear in this quadrant in
TIP If the texture map for the cracker box doesn’t appear in the 2D view,
select Image > Update PSD Networks in the UV Texture Editor to refresh the
2D view of the UV Texture Editor. Update PSD Network is normally used to
refresh a PSD texture in Maya after you have modified the PSD texture in
Adobe® Photoshop®.
In this example, the UVs for the cracker box appear like a box where all
six sides have been cut open and then unfolded flat.
The texture map does not appear correctly on the cracker box for a
number of reasons:
■ The UVs for the cracker box extend well beyond the default 0 to 1
UV range for the texture map in the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor.
As the texture map displays within the 0 to 1 range, the UVs should
also be positioned to fit within the 0 to 1 UV range, in most cases.
Otherwise, the texture map repeats on the surface mesh, as it does in
this case.
■ The position of the UVs do not match the specific regions of the image
we’ve provided for the texture map. The regions of the image show
the front, back, top, bottom, and sides of the box. The UVs should
specifically match these regions to display the texture correctly. UVs
do not automatically align themselves to a texture, you must manually
reposition them.
■ The shape of the UVs don’t match the aspect ratio of the cracker box
model in the scene view: -10 (Height) X 8 (Width) X 3 (Depth). This
There are a number of things you can do to correct these issues depending on
the situation. For this lesson, you will correct the UV and texture map
misalignment by doing the following:
■ Map a new set of UVs for the cracker box model that better matches the
individual faces of the cracker box. (While the existing UVs could be
modified, you’ll learn how to create new UVs in this lesson that will better
match the size and scale of the 3D model.
■ Ensure the new UVs fit within the 0 to 1 UV range in the UV Texture
Editor.
■ When the UVs for a surface are badly jumbled or are missing some UVs.
This can occur when a surface has been edited or modified in some way
and it becomes hard to determine what UVs may be missing as a result.
Maya lets you create UVs for polygonal and subdivision surfaces using a process
called projection mapping, also referred to as mapping UVs. Maya provides several
projection mapping types that map what gets viewed by a particular projection
2 From the Polygons menu set, select Create UVs > Automatic Mapping >
.
The Automatic Mapping Options window appears.
3 In the Automatic Mapping Options window, select Edit > Reset settings,
set the following options, and then click Project:
■ Planes: 3
■ Percentage Space: 2
When the projection is complete the new projected UVs from the triplanar
projection appear in the UV Texture Editor.
The texture map still does not appear correctly on the cracker box because
the UV shells need to be repositioned so they align with the corresponding
components of the image map.
While the shape of each UV shell is now recognizable as being associated with
the cracker box, it is not apparent which components in the UV Texture Editor
correspond to a particular face on the cracker box.
In the next section you learn how to select and reposition the UV shells so
they better match the image for the texture map.
■ Select UVs from either the scene view or the UV Texture Editor and
accurately correlate them. Selecting UV components is critical to modifying
them accurately.
■ Move and rotate UVs within the UV Texture Editor to make the UV shells
align to the cracker box texture map.
Selecting UV components
You can select UV components from either the scene view or within the UV
Texture Editor. Displaying both the 3D scene view and the 2D view of the UV
Texture Editor lets you easily correlate which UV components are associated
with a particular edge or vertex on the 3D model.
This is very helpful to understand the layout and orientation of your UV
texture coordinates in relation to the image used for a texture map and how
the map appears on the model in the 3D scene view.
1 In the UV Texture Editor, select Image > Display Image to turn off the
display of the texture image.
Display Image works by turning the display of the assigned texture on
or off in the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor. Turning the image off
temporarily aids in viewing only the UV components. This will be useful
in the steps that follow.
3 In the scene view, select one UV on any corner of the cracker box.
Selecting a UV is very similar to selecting a vertex on an object. That is,
you select a point that resides in exactly the same position as the vertex.
When you select a UV in the scene view, the corresponding UV is also
selected in the UV Texture Editor.
NOTE If more than one UV gets selected in the UV Texture Editor when you
select a UV in the scene view it indicates that multiple UV components share
the same UV on the 3D model (similar to how polygon faces share common
vertices). This is important to remember when you move one of these UV
components in the UV Texture Editor and other UVs also move.
4 In the scene view, right-click on the cracker box model and select Edge
from the marking menu that appears.
5 In the perspective view, select the top front edge of the cracker box.
■ Selecting the top front edge in the scene view, identifies the
corresponding front and top UV shells for the box. (Indicated by the
selection in the UV Texture Editor.)
This is useful when you need to understand how the various UV shells
relate to each other, especially when you have many UV shells for a model
in the scene; for example, when you sew two UV shell edges together.
In the steps that follow you select edges in the UV Texture Editor so you can
sew them together.
Sewing UVs
Sewing UV shells together merges the UV shells along a shared edge that you
specify. Sewing UVs is useful for the following reasons:
■ You can move and modify the UV shells as larger contiguous texture units.
This makes it more efficient to match the UVs to the texture in many
situations.
■ Texture maps can appear more uniform across texture borders when the
texture is applied to one or more sewn UV shells compared to many
separate UV shells. Sewing shells together reduces the chance that an
unwanted texture mismatch occurs along the texture edge.
1 In the scene view, ensure that only the top front edge of the cracker box
is still selected.
When the top front edge is selected in the scene view, the top edge of
one of the large UV shells is also selected as well as the left side of the
middle UV shell in the top row of the UV Texture Editor. For the cracker
box texture map, you need to sew these together so they correlate to the
map correctly.
3 Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the remaining three edges on front face of the
cracker box keeping in mind the following:
■ Select only one edge at a time in the scene view.
■ When you’ve completed the move and sew operation, your UV Texture
Editor should show the front UV shell with the corresponding top,
bottom, and side shells sewn to it. When fully complete, you will
have only two UV shells to match to the texture image for the cracker
box.
In the UV Texture Editor, the texture borders for two UV shells now
appear with a thicker line.
Displaying texture borders on the UV shells is useful for visualizing where the
texture borders exist on the 3D model in the scene view. That is, any portion
of the texture image that appears outside of the texture border will not appear
on the surface. It is particularly useful for troubleshooting texture mismatches
when they occur. Displaying the texture borders can also help to identify
Moving UV components
You manually reposition UV components in the UV Texture Editor using the
tools within the Toolbox. To reposition an individual UV component you
must first select it before selecting the Move Tool. To reposition an entire UV
shell you must first select one individual UV from the shell it belongs to and
then convert the selection to a shell before using the Move Tool.
3 In the UV Texture Editor, select one UV on the UV shell you sewed earlier
in the lesson.
The UV coordinate appears highlighted in the 2D view.
5 From the UV Texture Editor menu, select Tool > Move UV Shell Tool >
.
6 In the Move UV Shell Tool options window, turn off the Prevent overlap
option which prevents UV shells from being moved so they overlap and
then select Apply and Close.
7 Drag the green (Y axis) and red (X axis) Move Tool manipulator handles
to reposition the UV shell so it matches the displayed texture image.
The position of the texture updates on the cracker box model in the scene
view as you do this.
9 Convert the UV selection to a shell selection by pressing the Ctrl key and
right-clicking in the UV Texture Editor. Choose To Shell from the marking
menu that appears.
The selection changes from a single selected UV to selecting the entire
UV shell.
10 In the UV Texture Editor’s toolbar, click one of the Rotate UVs buttons
to rotate the UV shell so it appears in the same orientation as the texture
image. (Click the other Rotate UVs button to rotate it in the opposite
direction.)
TIP If the texture appears upside down, you can continue to rotate it another
180 degrees. If the texture appears reversed, that is, the letters are backwards,
you can correct this by selecting Polygons > Flip from the UV Texture Editor
menu and choosing the appropriate option setting.
12 From the UV Texture Editor menu, select Tool > Move UV Shell Tool.
A move manipulator icon appears over the selected UV shell.
13 Drag the green (Y axis) and red (X axis) manipulator handles to reposition
the UV shell so it matches the displayed texture image.
The texture map should now appear correct on all sides of the cracker
box when you’re finished.
TIP You can confirm that the UV shells are positioned accurately by dollying
in closer on the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor. If a minor correction is
required, simply select and move the UVs or move the entire UV shell.
■ UVs are represented as 2D coordinates and are viewed and edited with
respect to the 2D texture map using the UV Texture Editor. The UV Texture
Editor provides many other tools for editing UVs.
■ It is useful to display both the 3D scene view and the 2D UV Texture Editor
simultaneously when texture mapping so that a correlation between the
3D model and 2D UV coordinates can be made.
■ You can view the regions where UVs overlap each other in the UV Texture
Editor by selecting the UV shells and selecting Image > Shade UVs.
You can open the PSD file you used in this lesson using Adobe® Photoshop®
to learn how layers were used for the texture map. You can edit one or more
of the layers to experiment with how the texture can be modified. After you
modify and save the file in Photoshop®, remember to select Image > Update
■ align UVs to one another or snap them to the grid in the 2D view
■ untangle a UV mesh that contains overlapping UVs using Edit UVs > Relax.
In general, you should begin texturing a model only after the model is fully
complete. Otherwise, changes to the model may affect the associated UV
texture coordinates which in turn will affect how the texture appears on the
model.
In this lesson you matched the UVs to an existing texture image. Many texture
artists create good UV layouts for their models prior to creating the actual 2D
images for their texture maps. This is done only after the model is fully
complete.
You can export a bitmap image of the 2D view of the UV Texture Editor to
use as a guide for painting a texture in your favorite image creation software.
In the UV Texture Editor, select Polygons > UV Snapshot to export the image.
If you use Adobe® Photoshop® for image creation and editing you can create
a UV snapshot in a .PSD file format that creates the UV image on a separate
layer. To create the .PSD format file while working in the UV Texture Editor,
select Image > Create PSD Network.
If you want to learn more about a particular tool or feature that was used in
this lesson, please refer to the Maya Help.
Introduction
■ Cut UV edges.
Lesson Setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning:
■ Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lesson on page 362.
■ Select the Polygons menu set by selecting it from the pull down menu on
the status line.
■ In the panel menu, select Panels > Saved Layouts > Persp/UV Texture Editor.
Your view is split between the perspective view and UV Texture Editor.
If you select the polygon soldier and look at the UV Texture Editor, notice
that the UVs for the body, arms, and legs are scattered in a pattern that doesn’t
resemble the actual model. This isn’t very helpful for painting a texture map.
5 Repeat steps 1-3 for the following areas (use the pictures as reference for
the boundaries of each extraction).
Extract Point Example
Left arm
Legs
1 Right-click the torso and select Object mode from the marking menu.
6 Click Project.
Unfolding a UV mesh
Unfolding a UV mesh is the process of cutting a mesh so that you can lay its
entire surface area flat. However, before you do this, you want to make sure
your UVs are spread out evenly along the surface. You can do this by applying
a basic checker pattern to the mesh.
1 Right-click the torso and select Assign New Material > Lambert.
5 Select Checker.
From the front view, the checker pattern looks roughly even with very little
distortion. This indicates that the spread of UVs is fairly even. An even spread
of UVs is important to avoid texture warping when you apply your texture.
In some cases you may need to experiment with different planar mappings
to give you the best base to start with.
However, the planar projection isn’t perfect. If you look at the sides of the
torso, from the armpits to the waist, you can see some warping. This is the
ideal place to cut the UV edges for unwrapping.
1 Right-click the vest and select Edge from the marking menu.
2 Select all the edges in a line that runs from under the arm, down the side
of the soldier’s body to the bottom of the vest. You can do this by
double-clicking edges along this path until they are all selected.
2 Select one UV at the inside tip of each vest strap, along the unfold line.
Maya lays the UV mesh out across the UV space. Parts of it may fall outside
the UV space, but that’s fine for now. More importantly, notice that the pattern
is much more even across the mesh now.
1 Right-click the torso and select Object Mode from the marking menu.
Outputting UVs
Now that you have your unfolded UVs, you need to export them so that you
can draw a texture on them. You can do this by taking a snapshot of your UV
layout.
To export a UV snapshot
1 Right-click the torso in the perspective view and select UV from the
marking menu.
5 Right-click the torso in the perspective view and select Object Mode.
11 Click Save.
12 Click OK.
Maya creates a file named torso_UVs.iff in the Getting Started folder. If you
open this file, you can see the exported UV mesh.
NOTE If your image editing software does not support Maya .iff images, you can
change the image format in the UV Snapshot options window and then export
the file again.
2 In the panel menu, select Panels > Saved Layouts > Persp/UV Texture
Editor.
The perspective view and UV Texture Editor appear side-by-side in the
viewport.
3 Right-click the arm and select Assign Existing Material > checker_pattern.
4 Right-click the arm and select Edge from the marking menu.
5 Select the edges on the bottom of the arm at the center of the distortion
just under the elbow.
8 Drag-select all the UVs on the arm and click the Rotate clockwise button
( ).
The UVs rotate so the arm in the UV Texture Editor is vertical.
9 Select one UV at the top of the arm’s tricep and another UV at the tip of
the soldier’s cuff.
The UV mesh for the arm is unfolded evenly up and down. This is better than
the UV mesh we would get if we unfolded in all directions.
1 Right-click the arm in the UV Texture Editor and select UV from the
marking menu.
4 In the UV Texture Editor, scale the UV mesh so that it fits inside the
upper-right square of the UV Texture Editor.
This step is necessary because a UV snapshot only captures what is in the
1 x 1 UV texture space (the upper right corner).
5 Right-click the arm in the perspective view and select Object Mode.
11 Click Save.
12 Click OK.
Like the torso you did in the previous step, Maya outputs a .gif file
containing the UV mesh. You can import this file into an image editor
and use it as a template to create a texture.
Now repeat the entire procedure for the right arm. Note that you do not need
to output the UVs for the right arm because it will use the same texture as the
left arm.
Although you could handle the legs the same way you handled the arms
(cutting them into two pieces), you can also treat the entire lower body as a
single mesh. You can follow the same procedure as above, except for the
following:
■ Select the edges down the rear until directly underneath the groin then
select the edges on the inside of each leg. Cut these UV edges.
Sewing UV Edges
Depending on the mapping you start with, you may sometimes find that your
UV mesh is broken up in ways that can ruin your final result. In these cases,
you can manually sew UV edges back together.
1 Select the head and select Create UVs > Cylindrical Mapping.
If you turn on texture border display by clicking the texture border display
icon ( )in the UV Texture Editor, and re-examine the top of the helmet,
you can see that a few edges that are not on the line of symmetry are colored
thick blue. This indicates that they are on the border of the UV mesh and will
cause a seam. You can fix this by sewing these overlapping UV edges together.
To sew UV edges
1 Right-click the helmet and select Edge from the marking menu.
2 Shift-select the two thick blue edges at the top of the helmet that are not
on the line of symmetry.
Notice that after sewing the UV edges together, the distortion has actually
gotten worse. However, this is only temporary and is fixed when you perform
the unfold.
1 In the UV Texture Editor, right-click the face mesh and select UV from
the marking menu.
2 Select the UVs down the center of the face starting from the tip of the
helmet’s rim to the bottom of the neck.
1 In the perspective view, right-click the soldier’s head and select Edge from
the marking menu.
2 Shift-select the four closest edge loops that surround each eye. You can
do this quickly by Shift + double-clicking one edge in each loop.
5 Drag the Relax control to the right until the eyes appear round.
As you drag the Relax control, the selected UVs relax until they are round.
Now you can fix the nose and mouth in a similar manner.
1 In the perspective view, right-click the head and select Edge from the
marking menu.
2 Shift-select the 4 edge loops around the mouth. You can do this quickly
by Shift + double-clicking one edge in each loop.
The UV mesh for the soldier’s head now has no UV faces overlapping. This
allows you maximum control over what shows up in each portion of the head
when you create the texture map for the soldier.
As with the rest of the body, you can now output these UV meshes to an
external file to paint a texture on them. For information about how to do this,
see Outputting UVs on page 402.
Applying Textures
Now that you’ve outputted all your UV meshes, you can import them into
an external image editor to create a texture.
1 In the perspective view, right-click the torso and select Assign New
Material > Lambert from the marking menu.
The soldier’s torso turns matte grey.
5 Click File.
9 Click File.
A file tab appears in the Attribute Editor.
■ You can cut UV edges in obscure areas to create a seam for unfolding.
Introduction
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning:
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lesson on page 362.
3 Select Rendering > Default Quality Rendering from the panel menu.
3 Click Open.
A high resolution polygonal toad model appears in the scene.
Statistics about the scene appear in the top left corner of the main viewport.
This model consists of over a hundred thousand faces just for the head and
upper torso. Loading such a high resolution model into the scene is impractical
for performance purposes.
Now compare the high resolution mesh with the low resolution alternative.
3 Click Open.
A low resolution polygon model loads on top of the high resolution toad
model.
The low resolution model is much more manageable in size with just over
1500 faces. However, while it maintains the basic shape of the high resolution
toad, it lacks much of the detail.
1 Right-click the mesh and select Assign New Material > Blinn from the
marking menu.
Maya applies a default Blinn shader to the low resolution mesh.
3 In the Transfer Maps window, in the Target Meshes section, click Add
Selected.
5 In the Transfer Maps window, in the Source Meshes section, click Add
Selected.
4 Click Save.
■ Under Maya Common Output, set Map width and Map height to
1024 and Sampling quality to Medium (4x4).
NOTE It may take a few minutes for Maya to generate the normal map.
You can also try applying other types of transfer maps to a low polygon model.
Each mapping feature gives you slightly different looks on your low polygon
model. For more information about transfer maps, see Lighting/Shading >
Transfer Maps.
In Maya, rendering refers to the process of creating bitmap images of your scene
based on the various shading, lighting, and camera attributes that you set.
When rendering, Maya takes into account all of the various objects and scene
attributes, and performs mathematical calculations to produce the final image
or image sequence. Once you render a sequence of images, you can then play
them back in sequence, producing an animation.
Rendering involves many components to produce an image:
437
■ Lighting and shadows
■ Rendering method
■ Visual effects
The mental ray® for Maya® software render type additionally provides a feature
called Global Illumination: a process that simulates the effect of indirectly
illuminating objects that are not receiving direct illumination. It can also
simulate light effects known as caustics. Hardware rendering is generally faster
but is less capable of producing detailed results. In addition, some visual effects
can only be produced via one method; at times, a combination of more than
one type of rendering method may be required.
Rendering usually requires several iterations to achieve the final image that
meets your requirements. The key is to strike the balance between producing
the image that meets your requirements and producing it in the time required.
This is particularly important if you are using Maya in a production setting.
This chapter introduces you to some of the fundamental concepts and skills
related to rendering. This chapter includes the following lessons:
2 To ensure the lessons work as described, select the Rendering menu set.
Unless otherwise noted, the directions in this chapter for making menu
selections assume you’ve already selected the Rendering menu set.
Introduction
■ Edit the Render Settings attributes to change the quality of the final results
of an image.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 439.
The scene contains an apple sitting on a plane, with another plane as the
background. A camera in the scene is animated to revolve around the
apple at varying distances. (As an alternative to using the scene apple.mb,
you can create a similar scene with your own objects.)
4 Click the Time Slider category and make sure the Playback Speed option
is set to Real-time (24 fps) so your animation will playback at the default
rate of 24 frames per second.
Material Description
When you open the apple.mb file, it initially displays the apple and the planes
as wireframes (Shading > Wireframe). This is the default display mode for
objects in a scene view.
1 In the perspective view, select Shading > Smooth Shade All (hotkey: 5).
2 In the perspective view, select the apple stem by clicking its geometry.
(Be sure that only the apple stem is selected.)
3 From the Rendering menu set, select Lighting/shading > Assign New
Material > Lambert.
The Attribute Editor appears for the Lambert material.
A Lambert material creates a matte surface without shiny highlights. You
will learn more about materials and their attributes in a later lesson.
1 Right-click the apple and select Assign New Material > Blinn from the
marking menu.
The Attribute Editor updates to display the attributes for the Blinn
material.
A Blinn material gives the apple a shiny appearance.
1 Right-click the background plane and select Assign New Material >
Lambert from the marking menu.
The Attribute Editor displays the attributes for the Lambert material.
3 In the Color Chooser window, click inside the color wheel and drag to
a light blue color.
The color you select in the Color Chooser is applied to the plane.
6 Right-click the surface that the apple is resting on and select Assign New
Material > Lambert.
The Attribute Editor displays the attributes for the Lambert material.
8 In the Color Chooser window, click inside the color wheel and drag to
a beige color.
The color you select in the Color Chooser is applied to the plane.
1 In the perspective view, right-click the counter surface and select Material
Attributes.
The Attribute Editor for the counter_lambert material appears.
The Create Render Node window appears and lists the various textures
you can connect to the color attribute of the Lambert material assigned
to the counter surface.
3 In the Create Render Node window, scroll through the list of textures,
and from the list of 3D Textures, click Granite.
The procedural texture gives the counter the look of a stone granite
counter top when it is rendered, and provides the context for the scene.
4 Press 6 to see a shaded and textured display of the granite texture on the
counter top surface.
5 In the Attribute Editor, under Granite Attributes change the Filler Color
from the default reddish-brown to a beige color as follows:
■ Click the color box to the right of Filler Color.
1 Right-click the apple and select Material Attributes from the marking
menu.
The Attribute Editor updates to display the appleSkin_blinn material
properties.
The Create Render Node window appears and lists the various texture
patterns you can connect to the Color attribute of the Blinn material
assigned to the apple.
7 Click inside the color wheel and drag to a very dark brown for the first
ramp color. Click Accept to close the window.
8 Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other three ramp colors. For the two middle
ramp colors, select a dark red. For the last ramp color, select a deep olive
green.
Maya renderers
So far, you’ve seen the results of shading the apple and other surfaces in the
scene view. In this view, Maya uses your computer’s graphics hardware to
display the shading and textures quickly but with low quality.
To view the shading results of the colors and textures in a more realistic
fashion, you must use a renderer. In this lesson you use a process called software
rendering.
Software rendering can take seconds or minutes to render a single frame of
animation from your scene, depending on the complexity of surface geometry,
shaders, lighting and other visual elements present in the scene.
The following table outlines the different types of renderers in Maya and what
each is used for:
Renderer Use
mental ray® for Maya® renderer A general purpose renderer that includes
exclusive, advanced rendering functional-
ity, such as host and network parallel ren-
dering, area light sources for soft shadows,
global illumination, and caustics (light
patterns).
1 In the perspective view, select View > Camera Attribute Editor to display
the attributes for the camera.
You need to specify the exact region of the perspective view you want to
render.
2 In the Attribute Editor, open the Display Options section and turn on
Display Resolution.
A dark green rectangular border shows the region to be rendered. This
region defines the area of the final image, and allows you to decide what
3 Select Render > IPR Render Current Frame (or select the IPR render current
frame button on the Status Line). (By default, Maya uses the Software
renderer as indicated on the Render View window’s toolbar.)
The Render View appears and displays the rendered image.
The rendered image shows the appearance of the apple based on the
lighting, and shows the more realistic texture of the counter.
4 In the Render View, select View > Frame Image to resize the Render View
window so it fits closely to the rendered image.
1 In the Render View, drag a selection box around the small area
surrounding the apple, counter, and wall as shown:
When using IPR, this selected region updates as you alter any shading,
texture, or lighting attributes. Selecting a smaller region quickens the
update. You can select regions throughout the image to see those areas
update.
2 In the scene view, right-click the wall and select Material Attributes to
display the Attribute Editor for the Lambert shader you applied to the
wall.
(You won’t alter any other attributes in this lesson. The purpose of the
lesson is to learn the process of rendering, not to perfect the results at
this point.)
4 From the Render View menu, select IPR > Redo Previous IPR Render.
The rendered image updates to the full resolution.
By default, the resolution of the IPR window is 320 by 240 pixels. The
advantage of this relatively small resolution is that it renders quickly. However,
if you want a larger image, you can increase the image resolution.
1 In the Render View menu, select Options > Render Settings (or click the
Render Settings button in the Render View window).
(An image size of 640 by 480 is four times as large as the 320 by 240 image
size.)
5 Select Render > IPR Render Current Frame (or select the IPR render current
frame button on the Status Line).
The Render View window opens and renders an image with an image
size of 640 by 480 pixels.
NOTE If you are using Maya on Windows or Linux, rendering the scene
displays another window called the Output window, typically behind other
windows on your desktop. The Output window lists statistics about the image
just rendered. For now, you can ignore and close the Output window. It
contains information that you will appreciate more as you gain experience
using Maya.
So far, you’ve used IPR to see changes you made to a shader. If you add lights
to the scene rather than using default lighting, you can also use IPR to help
adjust the lighting.
This setting provides high quality results by smoothing any jagged surface
edges in the rendered image.
6 In the Render View window, select Render > Render > Current
(apple_camera).
This menu item uses the software renderer to render a single frame of
the scene that you rendered with IPR previously but from the point of
view of the animated apple_camera.
You might not see a big improvement in quality as compared to the
IPR-rendered image. If you dolly the camera closer to the apple and render
once with IPR and once with the software renderer, you will see an
improvement at the edges of the apple as shown below:
8 In the Render View, select Render > Render > Current (apple_camera).
Ensure that the rendered image looks good at this frame also.
Now that you’ve checked a pair of rendered frames that represent the entire
animation, you are ready to render the entire animation sequence. In your
own projects, you might want to test render several frames, particularly where
new shading and lighting elements occur in the animation.
1 In the Render View window, select Options > Render Settings to display
the Render Settings window.
2 In the Render Settings window, select the Common tab, and then open
the File Output section.
■ Image Format: Select Maya IFF (.iff), Maya’s standard image file format.
You can use the .iff format for any further work you need to do,
■ End frame: Enter 60, the last frame to be batch rendered. (Rendering
all 200 frames may be time-consuming.)
2 From the Rendering menu set, select Render > Batch Render > .
The Batch Render Frame window appears.
3 Turn on Use all available processors, then click Batch Render and close
to start batch rendering.
(The Use all available processors option allows Maya to use all the
processors available on the local machine to complete the render.)
1 While Maya is rendering, select Window > General Editors > Script Editor.
Expand the size of the Script Editor window. The window shows a
completion log for the frames being rendered.
Maya puts the resulting files in a default images directory. The files have
the following names:
Apple.0001.iff
Apple.0002.iff
Apple.0003.iff
...
...
Apple.0050.iff
The images directory is located in the same path as the scenes directory.
You can have Maya save to a different path by changing the project
setting. See the Maya Help for further information on projects.
3 Click the image file Apple.0001.iff to select the first image in the
sequence and then click Open.
The FCheck image viewing utility appears and the rendered sequence of
60 frames plays back as an animated loop.
NOTE The FCheck rendering utility has playback, display, and other options
you can select from your keyboard. Details are available from the FCheck
Help menu.
■ You can additionally assign a texture map to some of the shading material
attributes so that your objects appear more realistic.
■ Maya provides several methods for rendering an image. You can render
using the Maya Software renderer, the Maya Hardware renderer, the Maya
Vector renderer or the mental ray® for Maya® renderer. Each type of
renderer has specific advantages and uses.
■ You can choose the size and quality for a rendered image prior to rendering
based on your specific needs and requirements.
■ You can view one image, or a sequence of rendered frames using the FCheck
utility.
Batch rendering
In this lesson, you used the Maya software renderer to check the image quality
of two frames before you started to batch render. When you create scenes with
sophisticated animation, it’s useful to batch render with low-quality resolution
to check the animation accuracy before batch rendering with
production-quality resolution. For instance, you might preview your animation
with the frames resulting from batch rendering at a small image size (320 by
240) with Preview Quality anti-aliasing.
You don’t need to use the batch renderer to render single frames from your
scene to disk. From the Render View window, select File > Save Image.
Hardware rendering
Hardware rendering leverages the power provided by hardware graphics cards
to render your images. The benefits of hardware rendering include the ability
to batch render frames more quickly than with software rendering, and
rendering specific particle effects not possible through software rendering. In
some cases, the image quality may be good enough for final use. You access
the hardware renderer by selecting Render > Render Using > Maya Hardware.
Hardware rendering has its own limitations when compared to software
rendering. For more information on hardware rendering, see the Maya Help.
Rendering in layers
It’s often useful to render objects in your scene in different layers and combine
them using compositing software. In some cases, you must render some optical
effects and then composite them afterwards. Rendering in layers can end up
being faster than rendering an entire scene, and it lets you replace individual
objects quickly if the need arises. To set up layers, use the Layer Editor, which
Introduction
In the real world, objects are seen in specific ways based on the following:
In Maya, you provide your surfaces and objects with these characteristics by
assigning shading materials to them.
Shading Materials provide instructions to the renderer so it can simulate how
the surfaces in your scene react to light and appear in the final image. Shading
■ Use the Hypershade editor to view and work with shading materials.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 439.
1 Before you create a new material, right-click the sphere and select Material
Attributes.
The default material attributes appear in the Attribute Editor.
The default material assigned to the sphere (and all other surfaces) is a
type of material called Lambert. The material displays the surface with
gray shading. You should not edit the default shading material.
2 Right-click the sphere and select Assign New Material > Blinn to create a
new material for the sphere.
The new material’s attributes appear in the Attribute Editor.
A Blinn material gives a surface a shinier look than a Lambert material.
Blinn is a good choice for creating a variety of surface appearances.
Knowing which material type to use for a particular surface comes with
practice. Fortunately, you can change the material type later on, so you
do not need to make a decision now. You will learn more about material
types later in the lesson.
3 In the Attribute Editor, click the gray box to the right of Color to open
the Color Chooser.
6 In the Attribute Editor, drag the Diffuse slider to its right to increase the
color brightness as viewed in the scene view.
This will help create the illusion of a bright orange.
Next, you’ll alter the surface specularity—the amount of light that reflects off
a surface, resulting in shiny highlights.
2 Move the Specular Roll Off slider to change the blend between highlighted
and other areas of the surface.
Changes to this attribute do not alter the surface in the scene view, so
you need to check the Material Sample in the Attribute Editor (see the
following illustration). You can also render a test image (Render > IPR
Render Current Frame).
Material types
A material type (also referred to as a shading model) defines how a particular
shading material on a surface simulates a natural reaction to light. Blinn,
Phong, and Lambert are a few examples of material types available in Maya.
Each of these material types provide distinct shading characteristics based on
the mathematical algorithms that define them.
From the settings you’ve made so far, you may decide you want to give the
orange a different look than possible with the Blinn material. You will now
change to a different material for comparison.
1 Next to the Type attribute near the top of the Attribute Editor, pull down
the menu and select Phong E.
Phong and Phong E are variations of the Lambert material type, with
specular highlights added. The main difference between materials is the
way each handles specularity. By switching between the material types,
you can compare which material gives you the specularity you need.
2 In the Specular Shading section, you can leave Roughness and Highlight
Size at the default settings. The default highlight settings give the orange
a waxy look.
3 The Phong E material type has a Whiteness attribute not available with
Blinn. Change Whiteness to a light gray to accentuate the highlights.
This change is subtle, so drag the slider back and forth while watching
the effect in the Material Sample or in an IPR region. Look for the entire
highlighted area to become whiter. Again, a strong highlight will create
a waxy look.
Assigning textures
For an orange, one color may be all that you need. In this section, you will
go a step further by making a logo stamp appear on the orange skin. For this
and other color effects, you need to apply a texture to your material.
In visual arts, a texture is any kind of surface detail, both visual and tactile.
In Maya, a texture is a collection of attributes that creates surface detail.
Textures have a more specialized display purpose than materials. For example,
you can use textures to create the appearance of a marbled pattern, bumps,
or a logo image on the side of a can.
1 Click the Map button next to the Color slider. This is a quick way of
applying a texture to an attribute. This is also called mapping a texture.
The Create Render Node window displays a list of the textures you can
apply. The texture names and their icons help you to decide which texture
is appropriate for the effect you want.
To create the logo stamp effect, you will use the File texture. A File texture
uses an image file that you or someone else created separately, such as a
drawing from a paint program. For this lesson, you’ll use an image we
created for you.
2 Before you create the texture, make sure Normal is selected in the options
above the texture swatches.
4 Click the folder icon to the right of the Image Name attribute. A browser
window opens with the path set to a default directory called sourceimages.
Maya looks for source images in a default sourceimages directory.
However, Maya can use file texture images anywhere on your workstation
or local network. For example, you could have them on a central disk
drive that is shared among your coworkers.
6 In the Render View window select IPR > Redo Previous IPR Render.
The file texture with a Mayakist logo now appears on the sphere. The
logo is somewhat jagged, which will simulate the look of an ink stamp
on rough orange skin.
The place2dTexture1 tab is a node with attributes that control the texture’s
position on the surface.
1 In the perspective view, select Panels > Saved Layouts > Hypershade/Persp.
This layout is convenient because it’s common practice to drag and drop
items from Hypershade (using the middle mouse button) onto objects in
the perspective view. You can also open Hypershade as a separate window
(Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade).
2 At the top of Hypershade, click the Materials tab to make sure the tab is
displayed. If the material swatches are too small to see clearly, dolly into
the view using the same keyboard and mouse shortcuts you would use
in the scene view.
3 With the middle mouse button, drag the lambert1 swatch into the scene
view and over the sphere. When you release the mouse, the Lambert
material appears on the sphere instead of the Phong E material you
previously created.
4 Drag the phongE1 swatch onto the sphere to reapply that material.
Hypershade is designed for quick, drag-and-drop operations such as this.
The arrows depict Maya’s internal information input and output, called
a stream. The next step shows the importance of this connection stream.
7 Click the line between the file1 and phongE1 nodes (it turns yellow) and
press the Delete key.
The sphere reverts to the default gray color because you have broken the
connection between these nodes and the texture is no longer assigned
to it. This is a simple illustration of how the connection stream works.
The file1 texture node is upstream from the connection you deleted, so
it no longer inputs data into the material; Maya ignores it.
In practical terms, this is an example of how you can disconnect a texture
from a material without actually deleting the texture. For example, you
may want to remove the file texture from this material and connect it to
another material instead. In a later step, you will learn about using
Hypershade to make connections between textures and materials.
10 Type: Orange.
Renaming is not as important in this scene as it would be in more complex
scenes with several materials.
The Rename operation is one of several useful menu items that appear
when you right-click a material swatch. Another handy menu item is
Assign Material to Selection. You can use this operation to assign a
material to multiple selected objects rather than assign it one object at a
time.
The Create Bar is similar to the Create Render Node window you have used
already. It is built into Hypershade for greater convenience.
Create Render Node appears at the top, by default. Next to the heading is an
arrow icon. If you click this icon, you switch to the Create mental ray Nodes
mode. In this case, leave the Create Maya Nodes selection turned on.
The Mayakist logo file texture is a 2D texture, which wraps evenly around the
surface. Next, you create a 3D texture. A 3D texture is for making objects
appear to have been carved out of a solid substance, such as marble or wood.
2 With the middle mouse button, drag the Brownian texture (under 3D
Textures) onto the Orange material swatch in the Work Area tab and
release the mouse button.
4 Select Graph > Input and Output Connections to view the node
connections for the new texture you created.
NOTE If you select Render > IPR Render Current Frame while Hypershade is
selected, a message appears: Please select the view you want to render. Either
select the perspective view before choosing IPR Render Current Frame, or,
in the Render View window, select IPR > Redo Previous IPR Renderer.
■ Octaves: 4.0
Now when you render, the bumps on the surface appear wider and
smoother, like the bumps on an orange skin. For example, the bumps in
the area surrounding the highlight do not appear to be as deep as they
were before you scaled the texture.
4 Now that you’ve changed the surface texture through scaling, move the
texture placement cube above the sphere (drag the green arrow up), to
see how that affects the texture.
In the rendered image, notice that the bumps still remain on the sphere.
Objects do not need to be within the texture placement cube, because it
represents an imaginary texture volume, which is infinite.
However, movement of the texture placement cube does shift the surface
texture pattern. The difference is hard to notice on a uniform texture like
Brownian. Transforming the cube would be more noticeable with a texture
such as Marble, where the veins within the pattern would be repositioned.
Movement of the object itself also shifts the surface texture. For example,
if you were to animate the orange rolling and then render an image
sequence, the texture would shift each frame rather than roll with the
surface. To prevent this undesirable effect, you need to make sure that
the texture moves in the same way the object moves. One way to do this
is to parent the texture placement cube (also called the place3dTexture
node) to the object. For more information on parenting, refer to the Maya
Help.
■ Shading materials can employ a variety of material types that can be used
to achieve specific surface characteristics (Shininess, Matte, and so on).
Placement of textures
When you put the Mayakist logo on the surface, the letters appeared straight.
The letters are actually skewed in the texture. We skewed the logo for your
use in this lesson so that it looks straight when stretched onto the surface.
In your own work, skewing texture images is usually too difficult and
impractical. A more practical Maya technique for assigning and positioning
file textures is to use texture projection. With this feature, you project the
texture onto the surface as if you are projecting a slide image onto a screen.
The texture is positioned where the projection strikes the surface. Instead of
a skewed Mayakist logo, you could use a straight logo and project it onto the
sphere. You could tune the angle of projection so that the curvature of the
surface skews the logo just as in the lesson. To assign textures as projections,
you turn on the As Projection option at the top of the 2D Textures section of
the Create Render Node window.
The placement of texture projections is similar to the placement you performed
for the bump map (3D) texture. Like the bump map texture, you need to
parent the texture projection (the place3dTexture node) to the object in order
to avoid the texture placement changing when the object moves.
Layered textures
Suppose you want to add a scarred pattern to the orange skin. Because you
can only have one texture assigned to the Color attribute you can use a Layered
Texture to combine two or more texture maps.
The Layered Texture is a texture node that lets you composite or layer several
textures on top of each other. You assign it to a material’s attribute just like
other textures. Within the Layered Texture’s attribute controls, you can connect
Shader Library
As an option, you can install a Shader Library with Maya to help you quickly
create common materials, such as bricks, fabrics, foods, and many other surface
types. When installed, a Shader Library tab appears in Hypershade. To use a
material, find the type of shading you want, drag and drop it into Hypershade,
then drag and drop it onto a surface in your scene using the middle mouse
button.
Introduction
■ Edit the attributes of lights and experiment with their effect in the scene.
■ Cast shadows on your surfaces using the lights and objects in the scene.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 439.
Directional lights
Maya has many types of lights that simulate natural and artificial lighting. In
the next steps, you create a light for the scene using a directional light. A
directional light uses parallel rays of light, as if illuminating from a very far
distance, to illuminate the scene. A directional light is often used to simulate
sunlight.
Because a directional light is similar to sunlight. Its parallel rays strike all
objects in the scene from a single direction as indicated by the arrow icon
representing the light. The position of the light is not so much important
as the direction that the arrow icon points.
3 Select Lighting > Use All Lights (Hotkey: 7). This lights up the scene view
only with lights you’ve created, not with default lighting. If you later
want to see the scene view with default lighting again, select Lighting >
Use Default Lighting (Hotkey: 6).
When you render the scene, by default, Maya uses all lights you’ve created.
If you don’t create any lights, Maya creates a temporary default directional
light for you and then deletes it when the render is complete.
Next, you aim the directional light and edit its attributes.
1 With the directional light selected, rotate the light in various directions.
The shading of surfaces changes as you rotate the light. The more directly
the light points at a surface, the brighter the shading. A directional light
is affected by its rotation, not its position. As you’ll see later, the position
of other lights affects the lighting.
■ Rotate Y: 25
■ Rotate Z: -20
With this orientation, all object surfaces in the scene show the effect of
the light in the current camera view.
3 With the light still selected, open the Attribute Editor (under the Window
menu). Drag the Intensity slider to various values to see the effects of
intensity.
Higher values brighten the surfaces. For example, an Intensity of 1.6
brightens the lighting so much that the gray default shading of some
surfaces are bleached to white.
NOTE Several of the following illustrations in this lesson are snapshots of the
scene after rendering. To render the scene, select Render > Render Current
Frame. Do not use IPR rendering for this lesson because it doesn’t
automatically update the image for some of the changes you make to the
scene.
5 Click inside the color wheel (hexagon) and drag the pointer to a red color.
The lighting imparts a red hue to the surfaces in the scene.
6 Change the color back to white and set the Intensity to 1.2 or so.
You’ll use these settings for the basic lighting of the scene.
Spotlights
In the next steps, you light part of the desk by creating a spotlight and
positioning it within the desk lamp. A spotlight emits light from a single point
within a limited cone angle. You can aim a spot light in the direction you
want the light to illuminate.
To create a spotlight
3 Move the spotlight above the lamp. (Drag the light up along its local
Y-axis.)
4 Select Modify > Transformation Tools > Show Manipulator Tool (see
Modify > Transformation Tools > Move Tool, Rotate Tool, Scale Tool,
Show Manipulator Tool).
With the spotlight selected, this tool provides two manipulators that you
can move to position and aim the light precisely.
The look-at point specifies where the light focuses. The eye point defines
the position of the light source. All types of lights have an eye point, but
not necessarily a look-at point.
5 Move the look-at point to the top of the table, and move the eye point
roughly to the center of the lamp housing.
Spotlights | 489
You can also use the Rotate tool to center the eye-point more accurately
in the lamp housing.
An alternative way to position a spotlight is to select the light and then
select Panels > Look Through Selected. You can then dolly and pan the
view to focus on the desired surface. The area of focus is where the light
strikes the surface. To return to the perspective view select Panels >
Perspective > persp.
6 If you render the scene, you’ll notice that the spotlight lights up a circular
region on both the desk and the floor.
By default, light passes through and lights up each surface in its path.
The circular region of light is wider on the floor than the desk because a
spotlight emits a beam of light that widens with distance.
Only the floor, not the desk, will be lit by the spotlight in the scene view.
You’ll see the desk lit up only if you render the scene.
7 You can prevent the light from passing through the table. With the light
selected, display the Attribute Editor. Open its Shadows section and then
the Depth Map Shadow Attributes section, then turn on Use Depth Map
Shadows. Rendering creates this result:
This attribute sets how much the light intensity diminishes from the
center of the circular region out to the edge. Finding the right value is a
matter of experimentation. When you increase the Dropoff, the light’s
intensity diminishes, so you need to increase the Intensity. For example,
increase the Intensity to 1.6. Rendering creates this result:
To mimic the way a light source’s intensity naturally decreases with
distance, you might want to select a Decay Rate to diminish the light’s
intensity. The Linear setting diminishes light with the least abruptness,
Quadratic with the most abruptness. Cubic is between the two other
settings.
The default setting is No Decay, which means the light remains at full
intensity regardless of distance. If you use a setting other than No Decay,
you likely will need to increase the Intensity. For this lesson, leave the
Decay Rate set to No Decay.
5 In the Light Effects section of the Attribute Editor, click the map button
to the right of the Light Fog box.
This gives the appearance of the light beams illuminating fog or dust in
the air. Rendering creates this result:
Fog is more noticeable when you view (render) the light beam from a
side angle rather than from above the light fixture.
When you click the Light Fog map button, Maya creates a light fog node
and displays its attributes in the Attribute Editor.
The Color and Density attributes are useful for altering the fog’s hue and
transparency. These attributes affect only the light on its way to the
surface, not the light on the surface.
In the scene view, you’ll also notice a Light Fog icon extending from the
spotlight icon. When highlighted, it looks like this:
Shadows
Shadows are the darkened areas that appear on a surface when an object gets
in the path of a light source. Shadows are cast onto the area of a surface that
doesn’t directly receive light. Shadows ground the objects in your scene and
aid in defining their three-dimensional appearance. Shadows can add drama
to your scene.
Next, you create a shadow on the floor from the light cast by the spotlight.
To do this, you must edit a few of the spotlight’s attributes.
1 Select the spotlight and click the spotLightShape1 tab in the Attribute
Editor.
Shadows | 495
If you are intent on perfecting shadows in your future projects, try various
combinations of values for Resolution and Filter Size. For this lesson, the
default values are satisfactory because the shadow edge has minimal
contrast. If you create shadows with sharp contrast at the edges, altering
the default values will be more desirable.
1 Select Create > Cameras > Camera. This creates a perspective camera with
an icon representing it at the center of the grid.
3 Use the Show Manipulator Tool (select Modify > Transformation Tools
> Show Manipulator Tool) to position myCamera roughly in this position:
4 Select Panels > Perspective > myCamera to view the scene from myCamera.
5 While working with a camera, it’s useful to know the exact region of the
myCamera view that is displayed in rendered images. To see the border
of the render region, select View > Camera Attribute Editor. In the
Attribute Editor, open the Display Options section and turn on Display
Resolution. A rectangular border shows the region that will be rendered.
6 In the Film Back section of the Attribute Editor, set the Fit Resolution
Gate setting to Overscan.
By enabling the Overscan, the view displays more of the region outside
the area that will be rendered.
By displaying a small part of the scene that lies outside the rendered area,
you can plan future camera movement more easily, especially if the scene
has objects that move in and out of view.
3 With myCamera selected, set a key for the camera’s current view at the
first frame. To set a key, select the Animation menu set, and then select
Animate > Set Key. (For details on setting keys and animation technique,
see Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor on page 200.)
TIP You can undo and redo view changes such as dolly, track, and tumble
by selecting either the [ or ] bracket respectively. You can press these keys
repeatedly to undo or return to a particular view orientation.
7 Play the animation to see the camera dolly toward the table for the first
150 frames.
At this point, feel free to experiment with keying changes in the view
resulting from tumbling and tracking the camera. Excessive animation
of tumbling and tracking creates a dizzying effect that is a common
mistake of inexperienced artists. In general, it’s best to keep camera
animation simple except when you are striving for an unusual effect.
■ Place two types of lights in your scene and edit their attributes.
In addition to the directional light and spotlight you created in this lesson,
Maya has several other types of lights for creating nearly any type of natural
or artificial lighting. You might use as few as two lights or as many as 10
to get the look you want. Generally, the more lights you create, the longer
the rendering will take.
In addition to the light fog effect you created in this lesson, you can also
create Glow, Halo, and Lens Flare light effects with a similar workflow. To
see these effects, the light must point toward the camera view.
In some situations, you might want to prevent a light from striking a
surface in its path. For example, your scene shows a person leaning against
a wall in an outdoor night setting. You might want to light the wall with
dark, shadowy spotlights, and the person’s face only with a brighter, soft
■ Create and animate an additional camera from which to view the scene.
If you have previous experience with photography, you’ll recognize the
names of various camera attributes displayed in the Attribute Editor while
a camera is selected. You can modify the attribute values to suit your
requirements.
The values for certain camera attributes (for example, Film Aspect Ratio)
might cause a rendered image to not match the region bounded by the
Resolution Gate. In such cases, you can display the Film Gate (View >
Camera Settings > Film Gate) to see the region that will be rendered.
You can animate a camera along a path; for example, to create the illusion
of flying through mountainous terrain. This type of animation involves
the use of Animate > Motion Paths > Attach to Motion Path (from the
Animation menu set). If you additionally want the motion path-animated
camera to focus on a stationary or moving object, you need to use Create
> Cameras > Camera and Aim. If you want the camera to move in a looping
path, (for example, a roller coaster) you need to use Create > Cameras >
Camera, Aim, and Up.
Before you batch render a scene, you must select the camera you want to
use for rendering. Select Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings
to display the Render Settings window. In the File Output section, select
the camera from the Camera option.
Introduction
The mental ray® for Maya® renderer can render using a feature called Global
Illumination. Global Illumination simulates the effect of all lighting and
inter-reflection in the scene, whether the items are lit directly by a light source
or indirectly illuminated by other objects (and diffuse sources of illumination
in the scene).
For example, when a photographer lights an object in a studio, some of the
lighting for the object in the final image comes directly from the lights that
are used, while additional illumination comes from objects that are placed
near the subject to act as light reflectors. These are referred to as fill cards.
Light bounces off the fill cards, indirectly lighting nearby objects with a
secondary source of diffuse light. The color of the fill card colors the light that
gets reflected onto the object. The final illumination of the object comes from
this combination of multiple sources (direct light, specular reflections, and
diffuse light).
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 439.
■ Set the image size for your rendering using the Image Size settings.
When performing repeated test renders, a good practice is to render small
images so the tests render quickly.
■ Render an image using the mental ray for Maya renderer using raytracing.
1 In the main menu, select Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings
(or click the Render Settings icon on the Status Line) to display the Render
Settings window.
2 In the Render Settings window, set the Render Using setting to mental
ray.
When you render an image it will now use the mental ray for Maya
renderer.
NOTE When you switch between renderers in Maya (for example, Maya
Software, Maya Hardware, and mental ray for Maya), the common Render
Settings do not require re-setting.
When you perform repeated test renderings for a particular scene, consider
the time it takes for each render to complete. If you reduce the time it takes
to render each test image, the testing process proceeds much faster.
➤ At the top of the Render Settings window, select mental ray as your
renderer. Click on the Quality tab and set the Quality Presets setting to
Draft.
1 At the top of the Render Settings window, select the Common tab and
open the Image Size settings.
1 Click in the perspective window. This indicates which camera view you
want Maya to render.
2 On the Status Line, click the Render Current Frame icon to launch the
renderer to produce an image.
The Render View window appears and the fruit bowl scene renders using
the mental ray for Maya renderer.
3 Once the render is complete, click the Keep Image icon in the Render
View window to save this image.
Keeping the image allows you to compare it to any subsequent test renders
you produce. In this lesson you compare each rendered image to the
previous ones to understand how the changes you make in various settings
affect the rendered image.
The rendered image shows the fruit bowl lit from the right of the frame.
The upper and lower portions of the image are in shadow where the edges
of the wall prevented the spotlight from lighting those portions of the
scene. The shadow areas appear dark and do not show any detail of the
floor or walls. This illumination effect is typical of an image produced
with a single light source and direct illumination.
You initially render the scene using the attributes at their default settings to
see how they affect the rendered image and then compare it to the previous
raytrace rendering. As you gain more experience rendering with Global
Illumination you will better understand what settings to initially use.
2 In the Render Settings window, click on the Quality tab and set the
Quality Presets setting to Preview: Global Illumination.
This turns on preset attribute settings that enable and control the quality
of the Global Illumination. You initially render the scene using the default
settings. Once you’ve rendered an image and observed their effect, you
return to the Render Settings window and modify the settings accordingly.
4 Open the mental ray section, and in the Caustic and Global Illumination
attributes set the following settings:
■ Emit Photons: On
The spotlight emits photons into the scene when you next render an
image. Photon Intensity sets the brightness of the Global Illumination.
Global Illum Photons sets the number of photons that get emitted into
the scene.
■ In the Render View window menu, select View > Real Size. This resizes the
rendered image to its actual size.
TIP You can resize the panels in a preset layout by dragging the border
between neighboring panels using your left mouse button.
1 In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon to render
the image with the default Global Illumination settings.
2 When the image has completed rendering, click the Keep Image icon to
save the image.
In this rendering, the shadow areas of the scene appear less dark as a
result of Global Illumination. The bowl also appears more transparent
than in the previous rendering.
The effect you want to achieve is to have the shadow regions receive
indirect light; that is, you want to be able to view more detail in the
shadow areas as a result of the Global Illumination. To do this, you must
adjust the Global Illumination photon attributes. After you change an
attribute, test render the scene to see the effect of this change in the
rendered image. These repeated test renderings or iterations allow you to
work systematically towards the goal of creating the desired final image.
In the next steps you use the Attribute Editor to increase the Photon Intensity
to increase the overall Global Illumination for the scene.
1 In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon to render
the image.
2 When the image has completed rendering, click the Keep Image icon to
save the image.
■ The radius size that determines the size of the region surrounding a
particular sampling point (Radius).
1 In the Render Settings window, click on the Indirect Lighting tab and
expand the Global Illumination section. Change the following Global
Illumination attributes to:
■ Accuracy: 900
■ Radius: 2.5
NOTE As you increase the Global Illumination related quality and photon
settings, the time to render the image also increases. Your goal should be to
increase these settings just enough to achieve the desired image quality,
without increasing them beyond what is required so that your rendering
times are not adversely affected.
2 In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon to render
the image.
3 When the image has completed rendering, click the Keep Image icon to
save the image and then compare this rendered image with the previously
rendered images.
In the next steps, you increase the number of photons to provide a more
uniform Global Illumination in the scene.
When you increase the number of Global Illumination Photons you are
increasing the resulting density of the photon map that gets produced
at the beginning of the render process. The more photons, the smoother
the resulting Global Illumination. Increasing the number of photons also
increases the rendering time.
1 In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon to render
the image.
In this image, the circular spots that were seen in the previous renderings
have disappeared. You can observe other Global Illumination effects
compared to the original raytrace rendering:
■ Many of the objects have received some additional color from
neighboring objects in the scene as a result of the Global Illumination,
an effect known as color bleeding. When color bleeding occurs, objects
take on some of the color from neighboring objects as a result of the
reflected and transmitted light.
Now that you’ve tested and refined the Global Illumination for a small image
you can render a final image for the scene at a larger image size and increase
the rendering quality settings.
1 In the Render Settings window, select the Common tab and open the
Image Size settings.
➤ In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon to render
the image.
■ The mental ray for Maya renderer provides a feature that simulates indirect
illumination in the Maya scene called Global Illumination.
■ Photons are used to measure the Global Illumination of the scene via the
creation of a photon map.
■ Multiple test renders are often required to achieve the desired final image.
Photon maps
You can visualize the photon mapping that occurs at the beginning of the
rendering process provided you turn on the Enable Map Visualizer option in
the Caustics and Global Illumination > Photon Tracing section of the Render
Settings window. To view a visualization of the photon mapping, select
Window > Rendering Editors > mental ray > Map Visualizer.
Introduction
Caustics are the light effects and specular patterns that are cast on surfaces as
a result of focused light reflecting off highly reflective surfaces or refracting
through translucent surfaces.
The light patterns that occur on the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny
day, or the bright areas that occur in the shadow of a glass object as light
shines through it are examples of caustics.
The Caustic feature in the mental ray® for Maya® renderer simulates caustic
effects in your Maya scenes. Caustics are similar to Global Illumination in that
they are an indirect illumination effect.
In this lesson you learn how to:
■ Create the shadow effect that results from the refraction and concentration
of light through a transparent object, using the Caustic feature provided
in the mental ray for Maya renderer.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 439.
The scene contains a still life with a translucent bottle and apples. Other
surfaces act as the floor and walls for the scene. (The bottle appears opaque
when viewed in shaded and textured display mode.)
Two lights illuminate the scene: a spotlight and a point light.
Shading materials have already been assigned to the models and surfaces.
You can view the shaders and textures by opening the Hypershade editor.
When you initially render this scene, the objects cast shadows onto the
floor surface. Caustics are added to the lighting of the scene to create a
more realistic shadow for the translucent bottle.
➤ From the perspective view’s panel menu, select Panels > Saved Layouts
> Hypershade/Render/Persp.
TIP You can resize the panels in a preset layout by dragging the border
between neighboring panels using your left mouse button.
Turning on shadows
In this lesson, you learn how the bottle’s shadow can be made to appear more
realistic as a result of the caustics.
The Hypershade displays icons for the two lights in the scene.
When you render the scene, shadows are cast by the spotlight.
5 Hide the Attribute Editor by clicking the Show/Hide Attribute Editor icon
on the Status Line.
1 In the main menu, select Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings
(or click the Render Settings icon in the Render View window).
2 In the Render Settings window, set the Render Using setting to mental
ray.
1 At the top of the Render Settings window, select the Common tab and
open the Image Size settings.
2 Choose the 640 X 480 preset from the Presets drop-down list.
1 In the Render Settings window, select the Quality tab and set the Quality
Presets setting to Production.
The Production preset ensures that the refraction level settings (found in
Raytracing Quality section) are at a level high enough to render objects
with translucency (for example, the bottle). The Production preset also
sets the anti-aliasing level for the image.
2 In the Render View window, click the Render Current Frame icon.
The bottle scene renders using the mental ray for Maya renderer and the
image appears in the Render View window.
.
TIP If the rendered image appears either too small or too large in the Render
View window, select View > Frame Image from the Render View menu to fit
the image to the Render View.
3 Once the render is complete, click the Keep Image icon in the Render
View window.
■ The distortion of the table surface in the translucent glass effect based
on the refractions and reflections.
■ A dark region on the surface of the bottle. This results from the bottle
reflecting the empty black area of the scene in front of it.
In the next section, you turn on the caustics rendering attributes and render
the scene.
You initially render the scene using these attributes at their default settings
to see how they affect the rendered image and then compare it to the previous
raytrace rendering. As you gain more experience rendering with Caustics you
will better understand what settings to initially use.
1 In the Render Settings window, select the Quality tab and set the Quality
presets setting to PreviewCaustics.
This turns on the presets that control the quality of the caustics.
Mental ray for Maya uses photons to simulate the caustic effects in a scene.
Photons are small packets of energy emitted from a light source into the scene.
The photons travel throughout the scene, refracting through transparent
objects or reflecting off reflective surfaces. The renderer keeps track of the
3 Open the mental ray section, and in the Caustic and Global Illumination
attributes set:
■ Emit Photons: On
1 In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon.
2 When the image has completed rendering, click the Keep Image icon.
This image differs from the previous one in the following ways:
■ The bottle appears more opaque. This indicates that the correct
number of refractions may not be occurring. The Raytracing Refraction
Level setting may need to be increased. When a different preset was
selected (Production to Preview), the refraction levels changed.
■ There are spotted areas on the table surface directly in front of the
bottle. This can be corrected by adjusting the photon quality settings.
■ The desired caustic effect in the shadow has appeared but is not very
pronounced. You want to achieve an effect where the shadow has
brighter regions as a result of light being refracted through the surfaces
of the bottle.
1 In the Render Settings window, select the Quality tab and then open the
Raytracing attributes.
The Refractions setting sets the number of times a light ray can be refracted.
When the setting is too low the ray does not penetrate through all of the
surfaces. The Max Trace Depth setting limits the total Refraction and
Reflection settings. By setting it to 8, you ensure that two reflection and
six refraction calculations can occur.
■ Photon Refractions: 6
The Max Photon Depth setting limits the Refraction and Reflection
calculations for the Caustic Photons to the limit set. The Photon Refractions
setting is similar to the Refractions setting for raytracing but sets the
refractions for the Caustic photons. Close the Render Settings window.
2 In the Caustic and Global Illumination attributes for the light adjust the
settings to the following:
■ Photon Intensity: 36000
1 In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon to render
the image.
2 Once the render is complete, click the Keep Image icon in the Render
View window to save this image.
The translucency of the glass now appears more realistic. The caustic
effect is more evident in the shadow of the bottle. However, the spotted
effect, that appeared on the surface in front of the bottle, is more
pronounced. These spots are the result of a low caustics quality setting.
1 In the Render Settings window, open the Caustics and Global Illumination
attributes and change the following Caustics attributes to:
■ Accuracy: 900
■ Radius: 1.5
Increasing the number of caustic photons that get emitted into the scene also
increases the quality of the caustic effect. When you increase the number of
caustic photons you increase the density of the resulting photon map that
gets produced at the beginning of the render process. The more photons, the
smoother the resulting caustics effect.
NOTE As you increase the caustic quality and photon settings so will the render
time. Your goal should be to increase these settings just enough to achieve the
desired image quality, without increasing them beyond what is required so that
your rendering times are not adversely affected. Performing test renderings is the
best method to determine these settings.
3 In the Render View window, click the Redo Previous Render icon.
4 When the image has completed rendering, click the Keep Image icon and
compare this rendered image with the previously rendered images.
In this image the bright spots in front of the bottle should be reduced
when compared to the previous images. The caustic in the bottle’s shadow
should also appear more pronounced and more evenly illuminated.
■ Photons are used to determine the caustic effect in a scene via the creation
of a photon map.
■ Multiple test renders are often required to achieve the desired final image.
Photon maps
You can visualize the photon mapping that occurs at the beginning of the
rendering process provided you turn on the Enable Map Visualizer option in
the Caustics and Global Illumination section of the Render Settings window.
To view a visualization of the photon mapping, select Window > Rendering
Editors > mental ray > Map Visualizer.
Visualizing the photon mapping can aid in determining whether the coverage
and density of photons for the scene is appropriate for the resulting final
image.
By default, the mental ray for Maya renderer rebuilds the photon map each
time you render a scene using Caustics. If you are rendering a scene containing
camera animation in which the objects and lights remain static, or rendering
several iterations of a single image, you may consider turning off the Rebuild
Photon Map setting in order to reduce the rendering times for each frame.
1 Select File > New Scene to create a new scene before you start each lesson.
535
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
4 Select the Dynamics menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions in
this chapter for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected
the Dynamics menu set.
NOTE Before you perform the lessons in this book, ensure that the Interactive
Creation option for primitives is turned off by selecting Create > NURBS
Primitives > Interactive Creation. That is, ensure a check mark does not appear
beside the menu item.
Introduction
Particles are points that display as dots, streaks, spheres, or other shapes.
Particles can have attributes applied to them so they animate and render to
simulate natural phenomena.
You can create particles by clicking positions in the scene view, or you can
create them with an emitter that shoots particles into view.
To animate particles, you typically apply fields such as gravity or wind. By
combining emitters, particles, and fields, you can create natural phenomena
such as smoke, fireworks, or rain.
In this lesson, you will be introduced to some of the basic concepts of particles
and use particles, emitters, and volume fields to create a fountain-like effect.
In this lesson, you learn how to:
■ Color particles.
Creating an emitter
Emitters create particles as an animation plays. The emitter controls the
position, direction, quantity, and initial velocity of the emitted particles when
they are born. After particles are born, the attributes of the particle object
control their appearance.
You can make a standalone emitter, or you can make a surface, curve, and
even another particle an emitter. You move an emitter the same way you
move any geometry, such as setting keys or parenting it to a moving object.
In the next steps, you create a circle and emit particles from it.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 535.
3 Select Create > NURBS Primitives > Circle > . In the options window,
set the following options and click Create:
■ Radius: 4
■ Number of Sections: 25
4 With the circle selected, select Particles > Emit from Object.
By default, this creates an Omni emitter. If you dolly toward the center
of the grid, you can see a tiny icon that represents the emitter. When
you create an Omni emitter on a NURBS object, for instance, a circle,
each control vertex (CV) of the object emits particles in all directions.
The particles begin to emit from the object. When you create any type
of emitter, a particle object is automatically created and connected to it.
The connected particle object originally has no particles and is therefore
invisible. As the animation plays and the emitter generates particles, the
particle count of the connected particle object increases. When you go
to the start of the animation, the particle count returns to 0.
Note that if you had created the circle with a smaller Number of Sections,
there would be fewer CVs for the circle and therefore bigger gaps between
the emission points on the circles.
1 With the particle object still selected, select Fields > Volume Axis > .
■ Along Axis: -1
NOTE If any of these options are not visible, enlarge the Volume Axis
Options window.
This creates a conical Volume Axis field that affects the motion of particles
that enter or exist within its volume. Particles move in relation to a central
Using the axis attributes, you can specify that the particles:
■ move in a direction roughly parallel to the axis toward or away from the
point of the cone (Along Axis)
1 With the Volume Axis field still selected, set the following values in the
Channel Box:
■ TranslateY: 13
■ RotateZ: 180
■ ScaleX: 5
■ ScaleY: 13
■ ScaleZ: 5
This positions, rotates, and scales the volume axis field so that its base
lies on the same plane as the circle emitter. Even though the circle emits
particles in random directions, the volume axis field will redirect their
motion up the cone.
2 Go to the start of the playback range and play the animation for a few
seconds.
2 From the main menu, select Fields > Volume Axis > .
■ Around Axis: 2
A value of 2 for Around Axis causes the particles to swirl around the
central axis. For a torus, the central axis is the ring in the center of the
solid part of the torus.
A value of -0.7 for Away From Axis causes the particles to move radially
toward the central axis.
When you later play the animation, the combination of these values
cause the particles to loop up then down as if guided along the inner
walls of a torus.
Again, achieving the desired motion for particles within a volume axis
field requires experimentation with attribute values. Examine the arrows
4 With the torus volume field still selected, enter the following values in
the Channel Box:
■ TranslateY: 15
■ ScaleX: 3.6
■ ScaleY: 3.6
■ ScaleZ: 3.6
This moves the torus volume field up 15 units and scales it larger. Finding
the appropriate position for the volume axis field is a matter of
experimentation.
When the particles move through the top of the cone region, they spread
outward somewhat but do not follow the shape of the torus volume field
as specified in the prior steps. You’ll correct this situation in the next
steps.
1 Select the particle object and set the Conserve attribute to 0.8 in the
Channel Box.
By changing the Conserve value from the default value, 1, to 0.8, the
emission velocity’s influence on the particle motion decreases and the
field’s influence increases.
2 Go to the start of the playback range and play the animation. Notice how
the particle movement now conforms to the shape of the torus volume
field.
1 With the particle object still selected, display the Attribute Editor, and
select the particleShape1 tab.
2 Scroll down to the Render Attributes section, and set the Particle Render
Type to Streak.
The Streak render type displays moving particles with an elongated tail.
This render type enhances the display of objects such as meteors, and it’s
often used to create rain. The streak length is based on the velocity of
the particle, so if the particles are stationary or moving slowly and the
render type is set to streak, you won’t see the particles.
1 In the Attribute Editor, under the Render Attributes section, click the
Current Render Type button next to Add Attributes.
You can experiment with these settings to change the look of the particles.
3 Turn on the Add Per Particle Attribute and click Add Attribute. Notice
the rgbPP attribute that is added to the Per Particle (Array) Attributes
section of the Attribute Editor.
1 In the Attribute Editor, right-click the rgbPP data box and select Create
Ramp from the drop-down menu.
This causes a default color ramp to color the particles as follows:
As each particle ages from its time of birth (emission), its color changes
according to the ramp’s color in an upward vertical (V) direction. The
horizontal (U) direction of the ramp’s color is unused in this lesson.
When you create the ramp, Maya adds a lifespan attribute and sets it to
1 second, by default. Each particle changes from red to green to blue over
its lifespan of 1 second. The particle then disappears (dies).
2 From the perspective window menu, select Shading > Smooth Shade All.
This enables you to see the colors of the particles the next time you play
the animation.
3 Go to the start of the playback range and play the animation. Notice the
particles never reach the end of the cone volume.
Because the particles live longer, they pass all the way through the cone
and part of the way through the torus. The particles change from red to
green to blue and disappear as they are born, age, and die.
1 Select Window > Rendering Editors > Hardware Render Buffer. This
displays a window from which you hardware render the scene.
2 In the Hardware Render Buffer, go to the start frame and click the play
button. Stop the animation at frame 75.
You must play the particle animation from the beginning in order for
particle effects to be displayed correctly at each frame. You cannot go
directly to an arbitrary frame in the Time Slider and see correct results.
Maya calculates particle animation sequentially frame-by-frame.
The streaks look smoother than they do in the scene view. You can
improve the streaks even more as shown in the next steps.
5 In the Attribute Editor, under the Render Modes section, turn on Line
Smoothing. This softens jagged edges when you hardware render Streak
or MultiStreak render types.
Other attributes in the Attribute Editor specify the image resolution, file
format, lighting, and other display characteristics.
3 Make sure that no other windows overlap the Hardware Render Buffer
or that your screensaver may accidentally launch while you use this
feature. When you hardware render a frame sequence to disk, Maya
renders whatever exists within the borders of the Hardware Render Buffer
window.
4 In the Hardware Render Buffer window, select Render > Render Sequence.
This creates a series of files named Emit.0001, Emit.0002, and so on,
through Emit.0075. These files are the rendered frames 1 through 75.
Maya puts the files in your current project’s images directory.
6 Close the FCheck image viewing window when you are finished
examining the animation.
Introduction
In Maya, a rigid body is a surface which has the attributes of an unyielding
shape. Unlike conventional computer surfaces, rigid bodies collide rather than
pass through each other during animation and are used for creating dynamic
simulations. As well, rigid surfaces do not deform when they collide with
other objects in Maya.
Rigid bodies can be created from polygonal or NURBS surfaces. Rigid body
attributes can be assigned to the surfaces so they act and react in a simulation
in specific ways. Examples of rigid body attributes are velocity, mass, and
bounce.
To animate rigid body motion, you can use fields, keyframes, expressions,
rigid body constraints, or collisions with particles or other rigid bodies.
Rigid body constraints restrict the motion of rigid bodies. The constraints
simulate the behavior of real-world items you’re familiar with, such as pins,
nails, barriers, hinges, and springs.
In this lesson, you create a rigid body dynamic simulation in which you drop
a ball on some planks and watch the simulation in action. In this lesson you
learn how to:
■ Set attributes for the rigid bodies to be either active or passive for the
simulation.
Lesson setup
You can create rigid bodies from NURBS surfaces and polygonal surfaces. In
the following steps, you create some polygonal surfaces to be used for the
rigid bodies.
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 535.
4 In the Polygon Cube Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings (to
make sure the tool is set to its default, and then set the following options
and click Create:
■ Width : 2
■ Height: 4
■ Depth: 0.25
■ Axis: Z
5 With the polygon still selected, select Edit > Duplicate Special > .
6 In the Duplicate Special Options window, select Edit Reset Settings. Set
the following options and then click Duplicate Special:
■ Translate: 0 3 0
■ Number of copies: 5
This creates five copies of the polygon, each one placed 3 units above
the lower one.
➤ Position the objects as shown in the side view in the following illustration.
To position the planks precisely, select each plank individually and use
the Channel Box to enter the appropriate value from this list:
■ pCube1 - Translate Z: 0
■ pCube3 - Translate Z: 0
■ pCube4 - Translate Z: 2
■ pCube5 - Translate Z: -1
■ pCube6 - Translate Z: 1
By leaving the Set Initial Position at its default setting, the hinge
constraint is created at the rigid body’s center of mass.
5 Repeat this until each of the six planks has a constraint applied to it.
3 In the Rigid Body Attributes section, turn off Active to make pCube1 a
passive rigid body. Hide the Attribute Editor.
■ A hinge constraint can be used between an active rigid body and a position
in the scene view.
You can also create a hinge constraint between a passive rigid body and a
position in the scene view, two rigid bodies, and an active and passive
rigid body.
Other types of constraints include pin, nail, spring and barrier constraints.
For additional information on the types of constraints and their usage,
please refer to the Maya Help.
Maya provides painting tools that go above and beyond what many 3D creative
artists might normally envision. These tools allow you to accomplish a wide
range of modeling, animation, texturing, and effects work.
The painting tools are separated into three categories: Maya® Artisan™ brush
tools, Maya® Paint Effects™ tools, and 3D Paint. If you completed the previous
lessons in Getting Started with Maya, you already have experience with a few
of these tools.
The Artisan brush tools have a variety of applications and allow you to directly
modify attribute values interactively:
■ In the NURBS modeling lesson, you used the brush tools to sculpt a simple
face from a sphere.
561
■ In the Character Setup chapter, you used Artisan brush tools to modify
the skin weights on a surface mesh to ensure the character’s joint deformed
properly.
■ In the Character Setup chapter, you used the Artisan brush tools to modify
the cluster weights for Control Vertices to ensure a blend shape deformer
worked predictably.
As you have seen, Artisan brush tools can also be used to select surface
components. This selection method can dramatically improve the speed of
your workflow.
Maya Paint Effects allows the user to create natural and fantastic effects either
on a 2D canvas or as actual 3D objects in the scene.
■ Paint Effects comes with a suite of preset brushes to enable you to create
many types of 2D and 3D effects.
With 3D paint, you can paint and modify textures directly onto 3D surfaces
using both the Artisan and Paint Effects tools. You can paint texture attributes
such as color, transparency, and bump, to name but a few.
As you have already gained some experience with the Artisan brush tools, this
chapter focuses on Paint Effects and 3D Paint. It includes the following lessons:
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
5 From a panel menu bar, select Panels > Layouts > Single Pane.
6 Select the Rendering menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions in
this chapter assume the Rendering menu set is selected.
Introduction
One of the features of the Paint Effects Tool is the ability to paint colors,
patterns, and textures on a 2D canvas image. You can use the image as an
independent piece of art, a background image in your scene, or a texture to
be applied to a 3D surface.
In this lesson, you learn how to:
■ Use the pre-defined Paint Effects brushes to paint flowers and foliage.
2 If you want to create maximum space in the Maya window, turn off
Display > UI Elements > Channel Box/Layer Editor, Tool Settings, and
Attribute Editor.
3 On the panel menu bar, select Panels > Panel > Paint Effects (hotkey 8).
The panel displays a Paint Effects toolbar and menus.
4 From the Paint Effects menus, select Paint > Paint Canvas to display the
2D canvas.
You’re ready to start painting. It is not possible to display a grid on the
canvas.
When you first display the Paint Effects panel, your strokes use the default
brush—a solid black stroke similar to an airbrush.
6 Now paint with various preset brushes. To select a preset brush, select
Brush > Get Brush or click the following button in the toolbar:
The Visor organizes the hundreds of Paint Effects brushes into category folders.
In the Visor, click a folder, then click a brush icon in the area to the right of
the folders. (The name of each preset brush has the extension .mel because
each is a MEL script that establishes the brush’s operation characteristics.) You
can dolly within the Visor window to enlarge the viewable size of the brush
icons and read the names more clearly.
You can copy a brush or all brushes within a folder to the Shelf. Use the middle
mouse button to drag the brush or folder to the Shelf. Use the shelf editor
(available from the arrow menu at the left of the shelf) to remove items from
the shelf.
Some brushes apply paint directly along the paint path, while others produce
added effects. For example, the pens folder includes brushes such as
ballpointRed.mel that work like pens, while the flowers folder includes brushes
such as dahliaPink.mel that grow flowers as you drag the mouse. Brushes like
dahliaPink.mel use Paint Effects tubes.
1 Select the dahliaPink.mel brush and drag the mouse slowly for one stroke,
then quickly for the next stroke.
3 To erase the entire canvas, select Canvas > Clear or click the Canvas Clear
1 Select Brush > Reset Template Brush to select the default brush, then
paint on the canvas so you remember the brush effect.
2 Select Brush > Edit Template Brush or click the following button in the
toolbar:
You can edit various brush settings, for example, the brush width, in the
window that appears.
3 To resize the brush, change the Global Scale value. Alternatively, you can
move the brush over the canvas, press and hold the b Hotkey and drag
left or right. The circle on the canvas represents the size of your brush.
6 On the toolbar, click the swatch to the right of C (color) to display the
Color Chooser.
7 Select a color from the Color Chooser and paint on the canvas.
8 On the toolbar, slide the T (transparency) slider to the right until the T
box is a light gray. Paint on the canvas.
When you paint over existing paint strokes you will notice that your
paint is transparent allowing the previous strokes to show through.
NOTE The Toolbar color boxes, for example, C and T, are also available in
the Paint Effects Brush Settings window. (Select Brush > Edit Template Brush
> Shading.)
2 Select Canvas > Set Size and set the canvas size to 512 x 512—the width
and height in pixels. When you are prompted to save, click No, then
close the Set Canvas size window.
Although you’ll often use the default maximum canvas size to take
advantage of the available screen space, you might need to use a smaller
or larger size in many circumstances. For instance, if you plan to use the
image as a background in a computer game, you might need to use a
small canvas size such as 256 by 256.
5 Select Canvas > Clear > . In the options window, slide the Clear Color
slider all the way to the left. Click Apply.
This clears existing strokes and turns the canvas black. Before you paint
strokes on the black canvas, you may notice that some brushes seem to
have no effect. If this occurs, it’s because the paint is black or because it
is transparent enough to prevent the color from showing.
1 In the Visor (Brush > Get Brush), click the fern.mel preset brush in the
plants folder.
3 Resize the brush to a Global Scale of about 0.5 (Brush > Edit Template
Brush) and paint on the canvas.
4 On the toolbar, click the L1 color box (Leaf Color 1), select a shade of
blue from the Color Chooser, and leave the Color Chooser open.
L1 sets the color of the tips of the leaves.
5 Click the L2 color box (Leaf Color 2) and select a shade of red from the
Color Chooser.
L2 sets the color of the base of the leaves.
6 Click the B color box (Bud Color) and select a shade of yellow from the
Color Chooser. B sets the color of the flower buds.
7 Paint on the canvas and observe how the changes you’ve made to the
settings affect the final paint effect.
TIP You can change the path width of fern.mel without changing the width
of the leaves and stems. Select Brush > Edit Template Brush to display the
Brush Settings window, then in the Brush Profile section, change the value
of Brush Width. Similarly, you can alter the path width for any other preset
strokes with tubes.
1 On the main menu bar, select Paint Effects > Save Brush Preset. This is
the menu item you use to save the template brush as a preset brush.
2 Type the name blueFern in the Label box as well as the Overlay Label
box.
This name appears in icons on the Shelf or Visor after you save the brush.
3 For the Save Preset option, turn on To Shelf. This means you’ll put the
brush on the Shelf but not in the Visor.
5 Click Save Brush Preset. An icon for the new preset brush appears on the
Shelf.
6 To check that the blueFern brush works, select a different preset brush
and paint on the canvas, then select the blueFern from the Shelf and
paint on the canvas.
7 Clear the canvas and close the Save Brush Preset window.
Blending brushes
You can blend brushes. Before beginning, display the Visor, click gold.mel in
the metal folder, and paint on the canvas so you know gold’s effect. Do the
same for grassOrnament.mel from the grasses folder.
To blend brushes
2 From the menu, select Paint Effects > Preset Blending > .
The Preset Blending options window appears.
The brush preset blending is toggled on and the options in this window
set how much the template brush is influenced by the next preset brush
you select. This affects only the subsequent painting, not the preset
brushes in the Visor.
4 To confirm the effect, select gold.mel (in the metal folder), then paint
on the canvas.
6 Close the Brush Preset Blend window when you are done blending
brushes.
7 Do not clear the canvas. You’ll use your existing strokes in the next steps.
1 Select Brush > Reset Template Brush to select the default brush.
2 On the Brush menu, try the Smear, Blur, and Erase menu items and paint
on the strokes already on the canvas. You can also change these settings
using the Brush Type setting in the Paint Effects Brush Settings window
(Brush > Edit Template Brush).
3 If you need to perform compositing work, you can view the image’s alpha
4 If you turned on the alpha channel (Display > Alpha Channel), return
to the display of full color by selecting Display > All Channels.
5 Clear the canvas and restore the canvas color to white (Canvas > Clear >
).
6 To quit the canvas display and return to a scene view, select Panels >
Perspective > persp (Hotkey 8).
8 Select Paint Effects > Preset Blending to turn off Preset Blending before
you proceed to the next lesson.
Painting a 2D canvas is also useful for creating a background image for a scene.
For instance, you might create lush foliage on the canvas, put it on a camera’s
image plane, then use it as the backdrop for animated jungle animals in the
foreground.
Although not covered in this lesson, you can use a tablet and stylus to paint
with pressure sensitivity. Pressure sensitivity allows you to more realistically
simulate the effects of traditional drawing media (pens, pencils, markers, etc.)
Introduction
The Paint Effects Tool goes beyond traditional paint software by allowing you
to paint directly in 3D space, either on the ground plane or on an object’s
surface. When you use Paint Effects for 3D work, the paint strokes are
three-dimensional and editable.
With Paint Effects, all of the hundreds of preset brushes found in the Visor
under the Paint Effects tab (airbrushes, pens, markers, watercolors, plants, fire,
■ Choose brushes from the Visor and the Shelf and modify their brush
attributes.
1 If you have not done so already, consider doing the lessons in the
Rendering section of this guide. Familiarity with Maya rendering concepts
is important to understanding the lessons.
4 From a panel menu bar, select Panels > Layouts > Single Pane.
5 Select the Rendering menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions in
this chapter assume the Rendering menu set is selected.
6 From the Shelf, select the Paint Effects tab to display the various preset
brushes.
If the Paint Effects Shelf tab does not appear as part of the shelf set, see
the Maya Help for Shelves. (For Linux users, any new shelves do not load
by default.)
Regardless of your operating system, the Paint Effects preset brushes are
accessible from the Visor panel. (From a view panel, select Panels > Panel
> Visor.)
1 From the Toolbox panel layout shortcuts, select the Single Perspective
View.
3 From the Paint Effects shelf, select the Daisy Large Brush.
In the scene view, the cursor changes to a red circle with a vertical line
indicating it is set to paint a stroke. The circle indicates the width of the
brush path. With some types of strokes, this path will appear as the width
of the actual paint; with other stroke types, it indicates the width of the
tube seeding path, for example, plants, trees, etc.
The settings of the preset brush you select are copied to the template
brush. The template brush settings are used when a paint stroke is drawn.
If you want to modify the brush presets before you begin to paint, you
must edit the template brush after you’ve chosen the preset brush (Paint
Effects > Template Brush Settings).
1 With the Daisy Brush selected, draw one short paint stroke on the ground
plane using one of the following methods:
■ Drag the stylus across the tablet while exerting slight pressure on the
stylus as you move it.
One or more wireframe daisy stalks appear in the scene view along the
path of the paint stroke. When you paint a stroke in the scene view it
initially appears as a wireframe. Paint is not applied to the stroke until it
is rendered.
2 Dolly and tumble the scene to better view these strokes with tubes in 3D.
4 In the scene view, drag any of the Move Tool manipulator arrows to
reposition the stroke.
Each time you paint a stroke, Paint Effects creates a new brush and stroke
node and attaches them to the stroke that is created. You can modify these
brush and stroke nodes once they’ve been created. To edit these brush or
stroke attributes, you use the Attribute Editor.
1 To view the Attribute Editor, click the Show/Hide icon on the Status Line.
2 In the scene view, select the paint stroke associated with the daisies. You
can select a stroke by one of the following methods:
■ Select the curve associated with the stroke path.
The Attribute Editor updates to display the nodes associated with the
selected daisy stroke. The various attributes for the stroke appear under
different tabs. Each tab represents a node associated with a specific set of
attributes.
6 Expand the End Bounds section by clicking the arrow to see the Min and
Max Clip attributes.
Min Clip specifies the start of the stroke along the path. Max Clip specifies
the end of the stroke along the path.
7 Drag the Max Clip slider from its present value of 1.0 to a value of 0.1.
The stroke path is shortened.
Min and Max Clip can be animated to create the effect of the paint
advancing along a path.
11 In the daisyLarge1 node, expand the Tubes attributes, then Behavior and
Forces.
Drag the Gravity slider back to its original position approximately so that
the stalks appear upright.
The last tab in the Attribute Editor is the time node. The time node is
used for animation and dynamics. You do not use this node in this lesson.
■ Switch to painting in the scene painting view using the Paint Effects panel.
1 Dolly or tumble the scene so the view of the daisies appears roughly
similar to the image below.
2 From the Status Line, click the Render Current Frame button.
The Render View window opens, renders the image, and then displays
it.
3 From the main menu, select Create > Lights > Directional Light.
A directional light is created at the X,Y,Z origin of the scene.
The Attribute Editor updates to display the attributes for the active
directional light.
4 In the Attribute Editor, set the Intensity for the directional light to be
1.5.
5 From the Status Line, click the Render Current Frame button to render
the scene again.
The image renders and the Render View window image is refreshed.
The daisies appear brighter in this version of the rendered image.
Sometimes you may want to view your painted strokes as you paint. To do
this, you can paint in the Paint Effects panel view and use the scene painting
view mode.
NOTE If the 2D Paint Canvas appears instead (i.e.: panel appears white),
select Paint > Paint Scene, from the panel menu.
The Paint Effects panel menu and toolbar displays as well as the scene
painting view. This panel allows you to paint in scene painting view
mode.
2 With the Daisy Brush selected, paint a stroke in the scene painting view.
The new stroke displays in rendered mode. If you dolly or track the scene
painting view, any rendered strokes will revert back to wireframe display
until you refresh the rendered display.
4 From the Paint Effects panel menu, select Stroke Refresh > Off.
6 Manually refresh the rendering of the daisies by clicking the Redraw Paint
Effects view button.
With Paint Effects, you can paint 3D strokes directly on 3D objects in a Maya
scene.
2 From the main menu, select Create > NURBS Primitives > Plane > .
The NURBS plane options window appears.
3 In the NURBS Plane Options window, select Edit > Reset settings and
then set the following options:
■ Width: 15
■ Length: 15
■ U Patches: 10
■ V Patches: 10
3 From the Main menu, select Edit NURBS > Sculpt Geometry Tool.
The cursor display changes to the brush cursor for the Sculpt Geometry
tool.
4 On the Status Line, click the Show/Hide Tool Settings button to display
the tool settings for the Sculpt Geometry tool.
5 In the Brush section, set the Radius (U) to 2. and set the sculpt Operation
to Pull.
7 Drag the cursor along the back left edge of the plane to pull it upwards.
8 Dolly and track the view as required so you can easily view the areas you
need to sculpt.
9 Sculpt along the front and middle of the plane to make some bumpy
areas.
10 Repeat steps 7 through 10 until you have your 3D terrain looking roughly
as shown in the image below.
TIP If you want to undo a particular sculpt operation, click Ctrl + z to undo
the sculpt stroke. You can click Ctrl + z repeatedly to undo a number of sculpt
operations.
1 From the main menu, select Paint Effects > Get Brush.
The Visor panel appears.
2 In the Visor, click the Paint Effects tab to display the various brush folders.
3 Scroll down the brush folders list to the underwater folder, and click it
to view its contents.
Painting on objects
To paint on a 3D object, you must first make the object paintable. When you
paint directly on a paintable object, Paint Effects creates a curve on the surface
along the stroke path and attaches the stroke and new brush to it.
To paint on a 3D object
1 With the terrain surface selected, select Paint Effects > Make Paintable.
The kelp brush orients the tubes to point along the normal of the surface
you paint on. In the ocean, kelp grows towards the surface of the water
in a vertical manner. If you want your kelp to appear realistic, it should
point vertically upwards. If you paint the kelp on an angled part of the
surface, the kelp tube will not point in a vertical direction.
TIP If you want to change the scale of the Paint Effects stroke to obtain larger
plants or animals, press the b key and drag your stylus or mouse to the left
or right to make the global scale for the current brush smaller or larger.
If you want to change the width of the brush stroke, to paint a narrower or
wider tube path, for example, a wider swath of kelp plants, press the shift
and b key and drag to the left or right.
2 Open the Attribute Editor, select the Kelp tab, and expand the Tubes >
Behavior > Turbulence section.
■ Turbulence: 0.5
■ Frequency: 0.5
4 Click the Play Forward button on the Animation Time Slider to see the
turbulence effect on the kelp (You don’t need to set specific keyframes).
The kelp animates as if it were affected by ocean currents.
2 Paint a few fan coral strokes in your scene near the back edges of the
plane.
TIP If you paint a stroke in your scene and want to delete it you can do so
by one of the following methods:
■ Press Ctrl + z to immediately undo the stroke.
■ Click on the stroke to select it and then press the Delete key.
■ Marquee-select a tube associated with the stroke and then press the
Delete key.
■ Marquee-select multiple tubes and strokes and then press the Delete
key.
If you want to delete all the paint strokes in your scene you can select Edit >
Delete All by Type.
3 Paint additional strokes in your underwater scene using a few using the
following brushes found in the underwater folder in the Visor:
■ sea urchins, starfish, seashells, and anemones
4 Dolly and track the scene for a closer view so it appears approximately
as shown.
6 The renderer executes, renders the image, and then displays it in the
Render View window.
You can create a seabed texture for the plane primitive, a few rocks, and some
animated fish swimming to complete your scene.
You can spend additional time to further refine this scene, but this example
gives you an idea of how a scene with various 3D props can be quickly
established using Paint Effects and the various preset brushes found in the
Visor.
Mesh brushes are a brush type that provide special features not available with
other Paint Effect brush types. Mesh brushes render using polygonal triangles
rather than brush stamps. As a result, mesh strokes can be more accurately
texture-mapped for realistic results. They also appear more realistic compared
to other brush types whether they are viewed close-up or from a distance.
The mesh brush stroke can also be converted to a polygonal surface in the
Maya scene. Once the stroke is converted to polygons, the resulting polygons
can be modified using any of the Maya polygonal modification tools and
utilized like any other polygonal surface (animation, rendering, and so on)
In this section, you are introduced to mesh brushes and learn additional
techniques related to the various brush and stroke attributes. You learn how
to:
2 From the Toolbox panel layout shortcuts, select the Single Perspective
View.
In the scene view, the cursor changes to a sphere icon indicating it is set
to paint a stroke. The Teapot Brush is a mesh brush type.
5 In the scene view, drag your mouse or stylus along the ground plane to
create one short stroke.
6 Dolly and tumble the view to see the wireframe version of the stroke.
The teapot stroke displays three wireframe tubes to represent the teapot.
These tubes represent the body, spout, and handle for the teapot.
Paint Effects uses a plant or tree archetype to represent the various tube
attributes. If you envision how a plant or tree has a trunk, out from which
branches, leaves, flowers, and buds grow, you understand how each
attribute is controlled in the attribute editor.
The center vertical line represents the main tube, whose attributes are
found in the Creation tab of the attribute editor. The diagonal and
semicircular lines represent the Leaves and Flowers tube attributes for the
spout and handle of the teapot.
1 From the Status Line, click the Render Current Frame button.
The renderer executes, renders the paint stroke, and then displays the
image in a Render View window.
Mesh brush types are useful for representing hard surfaces compared to other
brush types (the teapot is one example).
Setting the Hide Strokes option to On ensures that after the conversion,
only the converted polygon mesh will be displayed.
The original mesh brush stroke still remains but is now hidden.
6 Click anywhere in the scene view away from the teapot surface to de-select
the teapot surface.
7 In the scene view, press 5 to smooth shade the display of the polygonal
teapot.
2 To view the Attribute Editor, click the Show/Hide button on the Status
Line.
3 In the Attribute Editor, click on the teapot1 tab to display the brush
attributes for the teapot stroke. (You may need to click the display arrow
(Windows, Mac OS X) or select the tab from the pop-up list (Linux) in
order to see the tab.)
5 In the Mesh attributes, drag the Tubes Sections slider to the left to a value
of 3.
The body, spout, and handle of the teapot update to display as 3 sided
surfaces.
7 In the Attribute Editor, close the Mesh attributes, and then expand the
Tubes attributes, then the Creation attributes.
The Creation attributes control the main body of the teapot; the “trunk”
or “stalk” of your paint effect mesh type.
9 In the Width Scale attributes, drag an index point handle (as shown
below) to change the profile shape of the teapot.
The profile of the teapot body is modified.
11 Close the Creation attribute section in the Attribute Editor, and open the
Growth attributes, followed by the Leaves attributes.
12 In the Leaves attributes, drag the sliders for the Leaves In Cluster, Leaf
Length, Leaf Base Width, and Leaf Tip Width attributes to experiment
with the spout of the teapot.
Using this converted poly mesh is one example of how the attributes of the
paint stroke can be modified to affect the shape of another object through
construction history.
If you delete the paint stroke, the construction history between the stroke and
the polygonal teapot will be removed. If you then want to make further
changes to the teapot, you must use the Edit Polygon tools.
➤ Render the teapot by clicking the Render Current Frame button on the
Status Line.
You can use Paint Effects to create natural or fantastic scenery, backdrops, and
atmospheres. Mesh Brush types are particularly useful for creating polygonal
trees that appear strikingly convincing, whether they are viewed close-up or
from a distance.
Paint Effects has many other useful techniques not covered in this lesson.
With Paint Effects you can:
■ Modify strokes to share a single brush, make strokes glow, and animate
the movement of strokes.
■ Add spring-like behavior to strokes with tubes, or you can make the tubes
react to dynamic forces such as wind.
Introduction
The 3D Paint Tool allows you to paint textures directly onto a model’s surface.
In this lesson, you paint colors, patterns, and textures on a dinosaur model.
In this lesson you learn how to:
3 Save the scene in your default scenes directory (File > Save Scene As).
This lesson works best when you start with a saved scene. When you use
the 3D Paint Tool, Maya automatically creates a directory to store the file
texture that will be created from your painting. By saving the scene, you
ensure that Maya can locate the directory and file texture that it creates
automatically.
4 Select Display > UI Elements > Tool Settings. This displays a Tool Settings
panel where the Channel Box is normally located. You will be working
with this panel throughout the lesson.
2 Select Texturing > 3D Paint Tool. The following warning appears on the
Command Feedback line:
Warning: Some surfaces have no file texture assigned to the
current attribute.
3 To make sure you have the default settings for the 3D Paint Tool, click
Reset Tool at the top of the 3D Paint Tool settings panel.
4 In the File Textures section of the 3D Paint Tool settings panel, set the
Attribute to Paint setting to Color, then click Assign/Edit Textures.
This step and the next two steps assign a texture to Dino. (Note that you
can also paint over an existing texture that you assigned from
Hypershade.)
5 Type 512 in the Size X box, which is the height of the new file texture in
pixels.
By increasing the file texture size, you will see finer detail and resolution
in a rendered image of your painting. The number 512 is twice the default
size, 256. You could use a higher resolution, but sizes larger than 512
slow the interactive speed as you paint. Notice that Size Y automatically
changes to 512. This is because Keep Aspect Ratio is turned on, ensuring
that the proportions of the texture are maintained.
1 If you have a tablet and pen, you can experiment with pressure sensitivity
as you paint. Open the Stylus Pressure section and turn on Stylus Pressure.
(You do not need to have a tablet and pen to complete the lesson.)
By default, when you paint with Artisan brushes, the pressure you apply
to the pen affects the Opacity setting of the 3D Paint Tool. The harder
you press, the more opaque the stroke.
2 In the Color section of the Tool Settings, click the box next to Color and
select a color in the Color Chooser. Leave the Color Chooser open. You’ll
use it in the next few steps.
4 Select another color from the Color Chooser and paint over your first
stroke.
The new color paints over the first color by default. Note that you can
blend the colors by choosing a different Blend Mode setting, under the
Paint Operations heading. You won’t blend the colors in this lesson.
5 Move the brush onto Dino, hold down the b key and drag to the left to
make the brush smaller. Drag until the number at the brush icon changes
to about 0.5. You don’t need to be precise.
Use this hotkey when you need to change the brush width. To make the
brush wider, drag to the right. You can also change the width by changing
the Radius (U) setting.
7 To remove paint, turn on Erase in the Paint Operations section and stroke
the desired region.
1 In the 3D Paint Tool settings panel, open the Stroke section and turn on
Reflection and set the Reflection Axis to X.
Notice that there are now two brush outlines that run along an axis. The
reflection axis is positioned around a point at the center of the object.
1 In the Flood settings of the 3D Paint Tool settings, click the Color box
and select a pale green color from the Color Chooser.
2 Set the Flood setting to All and then click on the Flood Paint button.
The Flood Color overwrites all other painting you’ve done. You can also
use Flood to erase painting.
Brush shapes
You can paint with different brush shapes to produce paint strokes with hard
edges, soft edges, or completely different patterns. You can choose from four
standard Artisan brush shapes, plus 40 preset brush shapes.
2 Change the Color setting to dark red or another color that contrasts with
the current green color.
By changing to the square brush shape, your brush stroke has a straight
edge. Along with the shapes available from the icons, you can choose
from many other unusual brush shapes that are based on image files.
You’ll do this in the next step. Before you do the next step, undo the
brush stroke you just made so it doesn’t distract from the next paint
strokes.
6 Click on Dino’s hump and barely move the brush to create a single spot
of paint.
7 Now drag the mouse over Dino to paint a single, continuous stroke.
8 To avoid the overlapping pattern of the prior step, increase the Stamp
Spacing (in the Stroke section) to 50. Paint on Dino with a continuous
stroke and you’ll see the brush pattern without it overlapping.
The Stamp Spacing setting defines how paint is applied when you stroke
the surface. If you set Stamp Spacing to 1, the edges of the brush shape
pattern just touch each other. If you set the spacing to be greater than 1,
there will be spaces between the brush shape pattern. If you set the spacing
to be less than 1, the brush shape pattern will overlap.
1 In the Brush section of the 3D Paint Tool settings, click the following
icon (Get Brush) to select from the preset Paint Effects brushes:
3 Select the spatterLight.mel brush. (To see the names of the swatches, drag
the pointer over them.)
Leave the Visor window open, but move it so you can see Dino again.
If you are using a tablet and stylus, you need to turn on Stylus Pressure
again to see the effect of your pressure as you paint. Stylus Pressure is off
because you changed from the Artisan brush to a Paint Effects brush.
For Paint Effects brushes, the pressure you apply to the pen affects three
different settings. If you change the settings, it affects only the selected
brush. The settings for each brush are separate from each other.
4 Paint on Dino.
5 In the Brush section of the 3D Paint Tool settings, click the following
icon (Edit Template Brush) to modify other brush settings:
The Paint Effects Brush Settings window opens. Any changes you make
to the settings in this window affect the display of your next stroke. As
an example, you’ll increase the brush’s incandescence.
7 Close the Paint Effects Brush Settings window and paint on Dino. Now
the paint has an incandescent glow.
2 Click the wetInWet folder and then click the cleanWaterDrip.mel brush.
Close the Visor window.
In the 3D Paint Tool settings, under Paint Operations settings, observe
that the Paint Operation is now set to Paint Effects Smear. The brush you
selected, cleanWaterDrip, has settings that turn on the Smear setting
automatically for you.
3 Paint across the side of Dino. The paint smears and produces an effect
similar to dripping wet paint.
1 In the 3D Paint Tool window, click Reset Tool to return to the default
settings.
2 In the File Textures section, set the Attribute to Paint setting to Bump
Map.
4 In the Assign/Edit Textures window, set both Size X and Size Y to 512
and then click Assign/Edit Textures.
Maya creates a file texture and applies it to the Bump Map attribute of
the DinoSkin material.
In the scene view, Dino’s color changes to white. Bump map textures are
based on grayscale colors. By default, when you create a rendered image,
bumps will appear in the areas of the surface where there is significant
grayscale color contrast. For instance, if a region has black and white
stripes, you’ll see grooves there. Regions with little or no contrast display
no bump.
The bumps will not show in the scene view; you must create a rendered
image in order to see them. The same is true when you paint certain other
attributes, such as Transparency and Incandescence.
Before you paint bumps on Dino, you must set up the Maya panels so
you can interactively see the results of your strokes in a rendered image.
6 In the bottom panel, select Panels > Panel > Render View.
Maya now displays the perspective view, the Render View, and the 3D
Paint Tool settings. With this arrangement, you’ll be able to see your
strokes render as you paint.
8 In the Render View, select IPR > IPR Render > persp. This renders an image
of Dino in the Render View.
9 In the Render View, drag a selection box around Dino’s midsection and
hump.
10 In the File Textures section of the 3D Paint Tool settings, turn on Update
on Stroke.
For a grooved bump effect, you need to change the brush shape.
11 In the Brush section of the 3D Paint Tool settings, click the Browse button.
14 Before doing other lessons, restore the Channel Box in the Maya window.
There are several other capabilities in the Paint Operations section, such as
the Clone option for Artisan brushes. With the Clone option, you can duplicate
the color and pattern from an area of the texture and then paint that pattern
elsewhere on the texture. For details on these options and other 3D Paint Tool
techniques, refer to the Maya Help.
This illustration shows the UV Texture Editor with the UVs for the Dino model
used in this lesson. These UVs meet the above two requirements. Notice that
the UVs form several meshes; they do not need to be one solid mesh.
625
This chapter contains the following lessons:
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
4 With the pointer in the perspective view, press 5 (for Shading > Smooth
Shade All). It’s easier to see the expression effects on shaded objects than
wireframe objects in the following lessons.
Introduction
This lesson introduces you to some basic concepts regarding the creation and
editing of expressions. You learn how to:
To create an expression
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 626.
3 With Ball selected, choose Window > Animation Editors > Expression
Editor.
Type all characters exactly as shown above. Entries are case sensitive. The
semicolon (;) signifies the end of the expression statement. End each
statement in an expression with a semicolon.
An error message appears in the Script Editor and Command Line’s
response area if the expression has incorrect syntax or typing mistakes.
0 0
1 0.0417
2 0.0833
3 0.125
24 1.0
240 10.0
You can find the time elapsed in the animation at any frame by
calculating this formula with a desktop calculator:
For example, if the frame rate is 24 frames/second and the animation is
at frame 1, the elapsed time is 1 divided by 24, or 0.0417. At frame 6, the
elapsed time is 6 divided by 24, which equals 0.25. Note that if your frame
rate was 30 frames/second the calculated values would be different.
7 Go to the start time and play the animation. Ball’s scaleY attribute
increases as the time increases:
Frame Time (seconds) Ball.scaleY (time + 1)
0 0 1
1 0.0417 1.0417
2 0.0833 1.0833
3 0.125 1.125
24 1.0 2.0
Maya executes the expression each frame. This causes the object size to
scale along its Y-axis, stretching its height during playback.
Editing expressions
To edit an expression after you’ve created it and closed the window, you must
know how to find the expression in the Expression Editor. The next steps
show how to find and edit the expression. Specifically, you’ll change the
expression to alter how quickly the scaleY value changes.
1 To display the Expression Editor again, select Window > Animation Editors
> Expression Editor.
2 To find the expression, make sure the Ball is selected. In the Attributes
list of the Expression Editor, select scaleY, the attribute controlled by the
expression.
If you don’t see the scaleY attribute, scroll through the Attributes list as
necessary. You can also use the Select Filter menu option to customize
how you search for your expressions within the Expression Editor.
The expression you created previously appears in the expression text
field:
Ball.scaleY = time + 1;
7 At this point and in subsequent steps, save the scene if you think you’ll
want to examine it at a later date.
Maya scales the Ball at different rates for the X, Y, and Z dimensions.
You can link attributes in different objects—so a change in one attribute alters
the behavior of the other. For example, you could cause Drum’s scaleY value
to always equal two times Ball’s scaleY value as in this example:
Ball.scaleY = time + 1;
Drum.scaleY = Ball.scaleY * 2;
If you decide to control attributes in two (or more) objects, you can select
either object to write the expression. In fact, any object or node in a scene
can be selected when you write an expression to control an object other than
a particle object.
Alternatively, you can write two (or more) expressions, for instance, one that
controls Ball.scaleY and one that controls Drum.scaleX and Drum.scaleY.
The advantage of creating separate expressions is that you’ll have two
expression names, each presumably named after the object and attribute you’re
controlling. Having two expression names makes it easier to find the expression
that controls the desired attribute.
The advantage of using a single expression to control the attributes is that all
statements are in a single expression. You don’t need to edit two expressions.
■ Use variables, for example time, to control the specific attributes within
expressions.
When you write expressions, it is common to assign the built-in time
variable to an attribute so the attribute value predictably increases as the
animation plays. It’s also useful to link an attribute’s value to the value of
This decreases the value of Ball’s scaleY attribute for the first three seconds of
playback.
When you use the predefined time variable, note the animation start frame
value. The lessons in this chapter use a start time of 0. In your work, you might
create an animation with a start time of 1. With Maya’s default frame rate of
24 frames per second, time is 0.0417 at frame 1.
Because of this small time offset from 0, the prior lesson would have required
more steps and instructions to work with frame 1 as the start time. For instance,
suppose you use following expression with the start time at 1.
Ball.scaleY = time + 1;
If you go to the start time, the expression sets the initial value of Ball’s scaleY
attribute to time + 1, which equals 0.0417 + 1, or 1.0417. Because Ball’s scaleY
attribute was 1 when you created it, going to the start time sets scaleY to a
value 0.0417 larger than its initial value.
This discrepancy means the Ball scaleY is larger than its scaleX and scaleZ
attributes in the first frame of the animation. Although the difference is minor
in this example, other cases might be more significant.
To start your animation at frame 1 and get the same result as the example,
you can subtract 0.0417 from the attribute:
Ball.scaleY = (time - 0.0417) + 1;
When you go to the start time, the expression sets Ball’s scaleY value to (0.0417
- 0.0417) + 1. This equals 1, its original scaleY value.
Introduction
Conditional statements set one attribute or variable for an expression based
on the condition of another attribute or variable. This means that when a
particular defined condition exists for one attribute then another attribute is
changed based on how the expression defines it to do so.
In this lesson you learn how to:
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 626.
5 With Balloon selected, choose Window > Animation Editors > Expression
Editor.
The expression executes when you click the Create button. Because the
animation is at frame 0, animation time is 0. Because time is less than 2,
Maya sets Balloon.scaleY equal to the value of time, which equals 0.
A scaleY value of 0 flattens the object in the Y dimension.
0 0 0
1 0.0417 0.0417
2 0.0833 0.0833
3 0.125 0.125
24 1.0 1.0
47 1.96 1.9583
48 2.0 1.9583
49 2.04 1.9583
9 Stop the animation and go to the start time. Balloon flattens again because
the scaleY attribute becomes 0 when you go to the start time. Time is 0,
so scaleY is 0.
NOTE Always examine the Script Editor for error messages after you edit an
expression and click the Create button. If you alter a previously successful
expression and a syntax error occurs, Maya executes the previous successful
expression when you play the animation. This might make you believe your
changes took effect. Error messages are preceded by the text // Error:.
4 Stop the animation and go to the start time. Balloon flattens but doesn’t
return to the origin. (If Balloon has risen out of view, adjust your camera
to see it.)
Balloon doesn’t return to the origin because the expression doesn’t assign
Balloon a starting point for the beginning of the animation.
6 Click Edit.
3 Click Edit.
Playback the animation. Balloon inflates for 2 seconds, then rises slowly
and smoothly with time, from its position at the origin.
2 Click Edit.
Simplifying expressions
You can simplify the expression to make it easier to read.
2 Click Edit.
2 Click Edit.
2 Click Edit.
At frame 0, Balloon disappears from view because its scale attributes are
0.
The scaleX, scaleY, and scaleZ attributes are 0 at frame 0 because time is
0. Any number multiplied by 0 is 0.
Because the expression sets scaleX and scaleZ to 50% of the value of time,
these dimensions scale slower than scaleY, which is set to 60% of the
value of time. Balloon scales faster in height than in width or depth. This
is true for many real balloons.
For further information and related techniques, refer to the Maya Help.
Introduction
You can use an expression to control attributes of particle objects. Particle
expressions can be more complex than other types of expressions. For example,
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page 626.
2 From the Dynamics menu set, select Particles > Particle Tool > .
3 In the Tool Settings window, click Reset Tool, and set the following
options:
■ Particle Name: Bubbles
■ Maximum Radius: 5
4 From the Toolbox, select the Selection Tool so that particles become
selected.
■ Radius: 0.5
7 In the Add Dynamic Attributes section of the Attribute Editor, click the
Color button. A window appears that prompts you to choose whether to
add the attribute per object, per particle, or connected to a shader.
8 Turn on Add Per Particle Attribute, then click the Add Attribute button.
This adds an rgbPP attribute to the particle shape node for Bubbles.
Because you’re adding this attribute as a per particle attribute, you can
give each particle a different color.
3 Save the scene if you plan to examine it later. This concludes the lesson.
For a particle object, you typically create two expressions—a creation expression
that initializes an attribute value in the first frame, and a runtime expression
that controls the attribute value in subsequent frames. (Creation and runtime
expressions exist only for particle objects, not for other types of objects.)
This lesson described how to color stationary particles as a simple way to
describe creation and runtime expressions. However, it’s more typical to use
particle expressions to:
■ Create sophisticated particle motion and life span; for example, the
movement and fading of exploding fireworks.
■ Create complex colors for emitted particles, for example, rocket exhaust
flames.
In this chapter, you learn some common scripting techniques and features that
highlight the capabilities of scripting in Maya:
651
Some basic concepts
The following section introduces some basic concepts that help you understand
what’s going on when you use scripting in Maya.
■ Python is a recent addition to Maya that provides the same access to Maya’s
commands as MEL. Python is a widely-used modern programming
language.
Maya’s user interface is built using scripts that execute (call) Maya commands.
As Python is a recent addition to Maya, the majority of the scripts accessed
through the user interface are written in MEL.
For example, when you click the sphere icon on the Shelf or select an item
from a menu, Maya calls MEL commands to create a sphere or execute the
command associated with the menu item.
■ To enter single line MEL and Python commands, use the Command Line.
To show the Command Line if it is hidden, select Display > UI Elements.
The Command Line is located near the bottom edge of the Maya interface.
■ To enter multi-line MEL and Python commands, use the Script Editor. The
Script Editor displays a history of executed commands, as well as the results
and outputs of commands. To open the Script Editor, select Window >
General Editors > Script Editor.
You can also load external MEL and Python files and run them using the Script
Editor. For more information, see Loading a script file on page 691.
All MEL commands are case-sensitive; SPHERE is not the same as sphere (and
returns an error message).
If no flags are provided, the command executes with default arguments. The
command fails if it requires arguments that it did not get.
■ Help can also be accessed from within the Script Editor by using the Maya
Command help. For example, entering help sphere shows a list of flags
that can be used with the sphere command.
Basics of Python
Python and MEL are scripting languages with equal prominence and
capabilities in Maya. Python can access all the Maya commands that MEL
does.
Python accesses Maya commands through the Python module maya.cmds.
Modules in Python are sets of commands that add functionality to Python,
and must be imported before using any of the commands from a module.
Flags in Python are implemented through Python’s named arguments. You
specify which argument to modify and use the assignment operator (=) to
assign a new value to the argument.
In order to run this or any example command, you must have imported the
Python module first. Enter import maya.cmds before starting to enter Python
commands.
■ You can also access help on Maya Python commands from within the
Script Editor by using the Maya Command help(). For example: typing
maya.cmds.help("sphere") outputs a list of possible flags that can be used
with the sphere command.
■ Help for native Python commands is accessed from within the Script Editor
by typing help("command") where command is the Python command you
want to access help for.
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
4 Ensure that the interactive creation option for primitives is turned off by
selecting Create > Polygon Primitives > Interactive Creation. The option
is off when a check mark does not display beside the item’s name in the
menu.
5 Ensure that the interactive creation option for surfaces is turned off by
selecting Create > NURBS Primitives > Interactive Creation. The option
is off when a check mark does not display beside the item’s name in the
menu.
Introduction
2 Click in the Command Line text field to position the text cursor in the
field
By default the Command Line is in MEL script entry mode. You can
change the mode by clicking on the text in the lower left hand corner.
For this lesson, ensure the Command Line is in MEL script entry mode.
The lower half of the Script Editor is the input section where you enter scripting
commands.
By default, Maya displays basic feedback from executed commands. However,
when Echo All Commands is on, Maya shows all the history from a command,
including when a script calls another script or modifies elements of the user
interface. While learning MEL, the extra lines of output produced when Echo
All Commands is on can be confusing because there is so much output. As
you become more experienced in MEL, the extra lines of history can be useful
for debugging a MEL script.
You can more easily isolate the command history created by the
commands you perform when there is no other history in the Script
Editor.
2 From the Shelf, select the Surfaces tab in order to view the tools located
on that shelf.
NOTE You can copy commands from the Script Editor history section and paste
them in the input section to execute them.
➤ Delete the NURBS sphere by pressing the delete key on your keyboard.
Script Editor tabs allow you to quickly switch between MEL and Python
script entry modes. You can create additional Script Editor tabs to serve
as a temporary holding area for scripts.
2 Type the following command in the input section of the Script Editor.
polyCube;
TIP When asked to type a command, you can copy it from these tutorials
and paste it into the Script Editor input section.
Comments in MEL begin with // and anything which follows these characters
on a line is ignored by MEL. The same convention is used for displaying results
of commands and output in the Script Editor history section. Similarly, results,
comments and messages output by Python are prefaced with the Python
commenting character ( # ).
NOTE In the rest of this lesson and the remaining MEL lessons, when asked to
type a command, execute the command after typing it with the Enter on the
numeric keypad on your keyboard. You can also execute commands with Ctrl+Enter
(Windows) or Ctrl+Return (Mac OS X).
TIP If you do not want the command to be removed from the input section of
the Script Editor after execution, highlight the command before execution by
selecting it with the mouse.
1 With the polygonal cube selected, type the following in the Script Editor:
move 3 2 1;
2 With the polygonal cube selected, type the following in the Script Editor:
move -1 -2 -3 -relative;
NOTE Flags have short and long names. Commands execute the same way whether
or not you use long or short flag names. The above command could have been
typed as:
polySphere -r 2 -sX 4;
Some flags have the same short names, but they are used in different contexts so
it does not affect the execution of the script. For example: -r is the short name
of the -relative flag, used with the move command, -r is also the short name
of the -radius flag, used with the sphere command.
➤ The sphere has a default name of pSphere#. Rename the selected sphere
by typing the following in the Script Editor:
rename test_Sphere;
The rename command changes the name of the currently selected object.
If multiple objects are selected, the rename command renames the selected
objects to the specified name with a numerical index appended, as every
object must have a unique name.
Editing Objects
Some MEL commands can take an edit flag that allows you to make changes
to the attributes of an object. The edit flag is used in conjunction with other
flags specifying which attributes to change.
2 Edit the height of the cube by typing the following in the Script Editor:
polyCube -edit -height 3;
3 Edit the radius of the sphere named test_Sphere by typing the following
in the Script Editor:
polySphere -edit -radius 1 test_Sphere;
4 Select the cube and the sphere simultaneously by holding down shift
and clicking the sphere.
NOTE A list of all flags available for a specific command can be displayed in
the Script Editor by typing help command;. For example, help sphere;
provides a list of flags for the sphere command.
For a full list of MEL or Python commands and flags, select one of the following
from the menu bar:
■ Write basic MEL creation commands to bypass the Maya user interface.
■ Use flags at object creation time to specify the attributes for the objects.
■ Edit the attributes of objects using a command in conjuction with the edit
flag.
■ Observe the history created in the Script Editor and then copy and paste
it into the Script Editor to create your own scripts.
■ Practice using creation commands through the user interface and observing
the resulting Script Editor history.
■ Practice copying and pasting commands from the Script Editor history
section to the Script Editor input section.
Introduction
In this lesson, you set up a three-point lighting system using MEL and save
those MEL commands as a button on the Shelf. This lets you quickly set up a
three-point lighting system in future scenes. You learn how to:
■ A main light to light the subject, cast shadows and produce highlights
2 Select Window > General Editors > Script Editor to open the Script Editor.
7 Render the scene by clicking the render button on the Status Line.
The Render View opens with a rendered image of the scene.
In the next steps, you type commands to create three-point lighting in the
scene and record them as script history for later use.
2 Create a directional light for the main lighting by typing the following:
directionalLight -intensity 1;
5 Adjust the resolution of the shadow maps so that the shadows appear
sharper by typing the following:
setAttr "main_lightShape.dmapResolution" 2048;
In the above command, you are increasing the resolution of the depth
map shadows to 2048.
Next, you create a rim light for the scene to help differentiate the torus from
its background.
Next, you create a fill light for the scene to soften the main lighting, fill the
shadowed part of the torus and decrease the overall contrast of the lighting
in the scene.
3 Reposition the light above the torus in a way so that the light rays from
the fill light are approximately 90 degrees to those of the main light by
typing the following:
move -relative 4 6 2;
1 Render the scene in the perspective view by selecting the render scene
2 Save the rendered image by clicking the Keep Image button in the
Render View.
3 Compare the two images using the scroll bar at the bottom of the window.
The newly rendered image has a shadow. If there was no fill light, detail would
be lost in the shadowed area, as the shadow would be black. The rim highlights
emphasize the curvature of the torus and help to differentiate the torus from
the background.
1 Highlight all the text in the history window by clicking at the beginning
of the history in the upper section of the Script Editor and dragging the
selection to the end of the Script Editor history section.
2 Render the scene in the perspective view by selecting the render scene
3 Save the rendered image by clicking the Keep Image button in the
Render View.
5 Render the scene again by selecting the render scene button on the
Status Line.
6 Compare the two images using the scroll bar at the bottom of the window.
➤ Middle-drag the Shelf button you want deleted to the trash can icon on
the far right of the Shelf.
NOTE The pointer icon changes to a icon when you are dragging a Shelf
button.
■ Type basic MEL creation commands to bypass the Maya user interface.
■ Use additional MEL script commands and MEL script command flags.
Here are some other things you can do with Shelf buttons.
■ You can save the custom settings for a menu option box command as a
shelf button by setting the parameters in the option box, and then selecting
the item from the menu while holding down Shift+Ctrl (Windows) or
Shift+Control+Option (Mac OS X).
■ You can add custom images to a shelf button, change the name of a shelf
button, or change the commands associated with a shelf button by selecting
Window > Settings/Preferences > Shelf Editor. For more information, see
Introduction
In this lesson, you learn how to store data in MEL variables. Variables are a
method of storing data in programming, including scripting languages. In
this lesson you use the saved value of a variable to create a pyramid of barrels
using MEL scripting commands. You also learn how to:
■ Use the built in MEL math functions to modify the value of variables
2 Open the Script Editor by selecting Window > General Editors > Script
Editor.
NOTE Variables in MEL should always have their type explicitly defined. If not
explicitly stated, the scripting language attempts to imply a data type for the
variable from the context of the first appearance of the variable. It is good practice
to explicitly declare variables as implicitly defining variables can lead to scripting
errors and slows down the execution of the script.
NOTE Variables can be declared and assigned a value in the same statement.
In the steps that follow, you create a row of barrels by spacing the barrels
evenly. This creates barrels that are just touching, which ensures that there
are no intersections during the rigid body simulation
In the next section, we’ll use the move command to position the duplicate
barrels, using the saved value of the diameter as an argument for the Z value
of the command.
3 Align the duplicate barrel with the original by moving the duplicate in
Z by a value equal to its diameter by typing the following:
5 Duplicate the currently selected barrel and align the duplicate with the
previously created barrel.
duplicate;
move -r 0 0 $diameter_barrel;
When duplicating objects, the selection always switches to the duplicate.
Each barrel is spaced the same relative to its neighbors.
NOTE Trigonometry functions are ratios that relate two sides of a right angled
triangle dependant on one of the angles of the triangle. Trigonometry functions
are often used for animation, as trigonometric functions are periodic. Periodic
functions cycle their output values after a certain period. These functions can easily
create cyclical or repeating animation.
NOTE Radians are a method of measuring sections of a circle. There are 360
degrees in a circle, which is equivalent to 2pi radians.
1 Declare a new variable to store the value of the Y offset by typing the
following:
2 Calculate the value of the Y-offset using the sine ratio. You must convert
the value of the angle to degrees with the degree to radian conversion
function.
$Y_offset = $diameter_barrel * (sin(deg_to_rad(60)));
The assignment operator evaluates the right hand side of the expression
and assigns it to the left hand side. The degree to radian conversion
function is the first to be evaluated, as it is within the most interior set
of brackets. The sine function calculates the sine of the angle given in
radians. The sine value is multiplied by the diameter to calculate the Y
offset. The variable is assigned the calculated value.
NOTE The variable $diameter_barrel does not change in value. Only the
variable on the left side of an assignment operator changes in value.
1 Select and duplicate all the objects in the scene, by typing the following:
select -allDagObjects;
duplicate;
Using the select command with the -allDagObjects flag selects all DAG
(Directed Acyclic Graph) objects, which are a set of objects that exist in
the scene such as geometry, IK chains and measure tools. Textures and
animation information do not belong to the Directed Acyclic Graph.
1 Make a plane for the barrels to simulate against by typing the following:
polyPlane -height 100 -width 100;
2 With the plane selected, add a rigid body node to the plane by typing
the following:
rigidBody -passive;
➤ Click the play button on the time slider to view the dynamics simulation.
Before proceeding with the next lesson you may want to review the material
presented in this lesson so you are familiar with the concepts and skills
associated with them. Some suggested tasks you can try on your own include:
Introduction
In this lesson, you create a user interface for an existing Maya procedure using
MEL scripting commands. You learn how to:
Creating a window
The first step in creating custom user interfaces is to create a window. This
window contains the elements of the user interface such as text, buttons and
other controls.
To create a window
1 Type the following commands into a MEL tab of the Script Editor.
window -resizeToFitChildren 1; showWindow;
A window appears.
2 Close the window clicking the X in the upper right hand corner.
Referencing controls
When creating windows with MEL scripting, you must ensure that every
window and user interface control is given a unique name. If you do not
explicitly give a window a name, it gets a default name. (In the previous
procedure, the name of the window was window1, even though you didn’t
1 Create a window with text and a button that closes it by typing the
following in a MEL tab of the Script Editor:
window -resizeToFitChildren 1 testwindow; columnLayout; text
-label "This is a test window you can close by\ clicking the
button below."; button -label "Close" -command "deleteUI
testwindow"; showWindow;
The button is created by the button command. The argument of the command
flag is a MEL command that is executed when the button is pressed. In this
case, pressing the button executes the deleteUI command, which deletes the
window you just created.
To have a backslash appear in a string, you must use a double backslash. The
backslash character is an escape character. Escape characters tell the script
interpreter that the character that follows is literal. Certain special symbols
can be created using the escape character in combination with other characters.
For example, to display quotes within a string:
print "Jim said \"Hello!\" to the Maya user";
Window naming
As user interface scripts get more complex, it is possible that you may make
a syntax error. If a user interface script partially executes and halts on an error,
the window still exists, but the window is not visible. If you fix the problem
and would like to execute the script again, you must either give the window
a new name, or delete the hidden window.
2 Create another window with the same name by typing the following in
a MEL tab of the Script Editor:
window testwindow; showWindow;
An error is output to the Script Editor.
1 Type the following command in the Script Editor input section, to delete
the hidden window:
deleteUI testwindow;
2 Press one of the “Click Me!” buttons in the window to test the script.
Clicking one of the “Click Me!” buttons deletes the other button by
calling the deleteUI command with the variable that stores the name of
the button control as an argument (button_one or button_two).
(If you click the button a second time, you’ll get an error as the button
you’re trying to delete has already been deleted.)
NOTE You can view the full name and path of a user interface elements by
using the print command to output the variable.
print $button_one;
This is the full path of the user interface control. You are using variables to
store the name and path of controls and therefore you do not have to type
the whole name and path to refer to user interface elements.
In this section, you learned how to create, delete, and check for the existence
of named windows. In the next section, you’ll hook up a more complex
window to a procedure.
Introduction to procedures
A procedure is a series of instructions that are separate from the main flow of
the script. Procedures allow you to reuse certain portions of a script for new
applications.
1 Create a cube and a ground plane by typing the following in a MEL tab
of the Script Editor:
polyCube -name roll_Cube; polyPlane -height 10 -width 10;
3 Set the current frame to two by selecting the current frame box and typing
a two.
The expressions set up by the makeRoll procedure only take effect when
the frame is greater than one.
5 Move the cube along the plane in X and Z using the Move tool.
1 In the Script Editor, ensure that Command > Show Line Numbers is
checked.
When Show Line Numbers is on, line numbers appear beside the
commands in the Script Editor. The lesson occasionally refers to line
numbers to tell you where to make a modification to the script. When
line numbers are referred to in the lesson, they are always the line
numbers of the original script.
2 Create a new tab in the Script Editor by selecting Command > New Tab.
A pop-up window asks you in which language should the commands
entered in this tab execute in.
5 Enter MEL2.
The tab is renamed.
4 Load the same MEL script into the MEL2 tab by repeating the above
procedure.
5 In the MEL tab, highlight the script by selecting Edit > Select All from
the Script Editor menu bar.
the script has been broken up into sections to describe the various user interface
controls and their flags. The user interface controls and commands that you
used earlier in the lesson are described only briefly below.
The conditional statement checks if a window with the specified name exists.
If the window exists, it deletes it.
Window command
window -resizeToFitChildren 1 makeRoll_Window;
The window command creates a user interface window to contain the controls.
For more information, see Creating a window on page 684.
Column layout
columnLayout;
The columnLayout command creates a layout that arranges the controls within
it in a column. For more information, see Referencing controls on page 684.
The command textField creates an editable text field. The text field command
has multiple flags. The name and path of the text field are stored as a variable.
See Storing control names on page 688.
Slider commands
$ground_int= `intSliderGrp -minValue -20 -maxValue 20 -value 0
-fieldMinValue -20 -fieldMaxValue 20 -field 1 -label "Ground
Plane"`; $diameter_float= `floatSliderGrp -value 1.0 -minValue
1.0 -fieldMinValue 1.0 -field 1 -label "Diameter"`;
■ The editable flag can be used to enable or disable editing of the text field.
■ The minValue and maxValue flags set the minimum and maximum values
for the slider.
■ The field flag enables the visibility of an editable value field beside the
slider. By default, the field is not visible.
■ The label flag sets the text that appears to the left of the slider.
Separator commands
separator -height 20 -width 120;
■ The height flag sets the amount of vertical spacing created by the separator.
The command checkBox creates a check box. The check box command has
multiple flags. The name and path of the check box are stored as a variable.
See Storing control names on page 688.
■ The value flag sets the initial value of the check box.
ShowWindow command
showWindow;
This command enables the last created window’s visibility. For more
information, see Creating a window on page 684.
■ The textField in the user interface will display the currently selected
object.
■ The check boxes in the window will be linked so that only one check box
can be selected at once.
■ The button will execute the makeRoll procedure with the arguments
specified in the window.
NOTE For more information on the ls command, see ls in the MEL Command
Reference.
For more information on arrays, see Arrays in the MEL and Expressions guide.
1 Create a new MEL tab (Command > New Tab in the Script Editor).
NOTE Arrays are used frequently in programming to manage large sets of data.
If arrays were not used to store large sets of data, you would need to create a
variable for each element of data, making scripts hard to maintain and taking up
lots of memory. For more information on arrays, see Arrays in the MEL and
Expressions guide.
Reduce your selection by extracting a single value from an array using an array
index.
2 Add the following commands to the top of your user interface script in
the MEL2 tab:
$all_selected_objects=`ls -selection`;
$first_selected_object=$all_selected_objects[0];
select $first_selected_object;
These commands change your selection to the object you selected first.
3 In the MEL2 tab, change the argument of the text flag located on line
14 of the original script (you can use the MEL tab for reference) from
name_of_object to the following:
$first_selected_object
The command now reads:
$obj_name_text = `textField -editable 0 -width 400 -text
$first_selected_object`;
The text field now displays the currently selected object.
If you attempt to execute the modified user interface creation script
without an object selected, an error occurs, as no elements exist in the
string array $all_selected_objects.
TIP Don’t execute the script from the MEL2 tab yet, as it will clear the tab
and we want to continue modifying the script. If you do want to execute the
script at any interim time, create a new MEL tab, copy the script into it, and
execute that.
■ The changeCommand flag triggers whenever the state of the check box
changes.
You can use the checkBox command with an edit flag to change the state of
a check box in the user interface.
1 In the tempMEL tab, change the state of the make roll window’s check
box by executing the following:
checkBox -edit -value 0 $box_sim_checkbox;
The Box Simulation check box, which was turned on, is now turned off.
You can repeat this command with a value of 1 to turn the check box
back on.
This shows the use of the edit flag with a command as an argument to
a command flag, which allows you to change values.
We’ll now use the onCommand and offCommand flags to keep the two check
boxes in sync, so that when one check box has its state changed, the
other check box is set to the opposite state.
1 Change the value of the diameter slider to 10.01 by dragging the slider
to the right, or by typing a value in the diameter slider’s text field.
2 Print the value of the diameter slider by typing the following in the
tempMEL tab:
print ("The diameter is: " + `floatSliderGrp -query -value
$diameter_float`);
The following is output to the Script Editor
The diameter is: 10.01
The query flag allows you to output a value to the Script Editor.
Change the command flag of the button so that it calls makeRoll command
with arguments values that are the same as the specified values in the user
interface.
➤ Replace the command flag of the execution button block in the MEL2
tab (approximately line 57) with the following:
-command "makeRoll \ `textField -query -text $obj_name_text` \
`intSliderGrp -query -value $ground_int` \ `checkBox -query -
value $box_sim_checkbox` \ `floatSliderGrp -query -value $diamet
er_float`;"`;
3 Highlight the entire script by selecting Edit > Select All from the Script
Editor menu bar.
4 With the script highlighted, save the script by selecting File > Save Script
from the Script Editor.
The Script Editor only saves the highlighted commands when saving a
script.
NOTE Global procedures only have access to local procedures declared before
them in a script file.
■ Diameter = 1.0
Explore different results that occur when you apply the makeRoll procedure
with different user interface control values. Since you cannot undo the
makeRoll procedure, you will have to create new geometry every time to apply
the makeRoll procedure.
When you open a new Maya session, the makeRoll user interface procedure
is no longer defined and must be sourced to use it.
■ Create a window
Introduction
Python scripting in Maya is very similar to MEL scripting. Python scripting
has the same access MEL does to Maya functionality with very few limitations
(see Current limitations of the Python guide). Python requires a different
syntax than MEL, so commands in Python can look very different from their
MEL equivalents.
This tutorial is for migrating your MEL scripting experience to a Python
scripting environment in Maya. This lesson does not teach Python, only how
to use Python scripting in Maya. Maya uses Python 2.5 on all supported
platforms.
Python is a highly readable, easy to maintain, high level programming
language. Python is widely used in industry due to its simplicity and standard
libraries.
To learn Python, try a Getting Started tutorial in Python:
http://www.python.org/about/gettingstarted/
In this lesson, you learn how to:
■ Use flags in Python with the move, scale and rotate commands
3 Type the following command in the input section of the Script Editor
and execute it by pressing Enter on the numeric part of your keyboard,
or pressing Ctrl+Enter.
import maya.cmds as cmds
You now have access to Maya commands through the maya.cmds module.
NOTE This is how you load modules in Python. For more information about
other Python modules, see the online Python documentation.
1 Move the polygonal cube that you created with the following Python
command:
cmds.move(1,2,3)
1 Create a polygonal cube with the width defined at creation time by typing
the following:
cmds.polyCube(width=5)
The width flag allows you to set the width of a cube at creation time.
NOTE A list of flags available for a command can be output to the Script
editor by typing cmds.help("command"). For example: cmds.help("sphere")
1 Move the polygonal sphere by typing the following in the Script Editor:
cmds.move(2,2,2)
The polygonal cube moves relative to its current position. The relative
flag must be placed after the command arguments, as in Python, when
passing arguments, named arguments must appear after positional
arguments. The command arguments must always be the first arguments
of the command.
The name of the object must be passed as a string after the command
arguments, but before the flags.
5 Select the polygonal cube and polygonal sphere by clicking the polygonal
cube, then shift clicking the sphere.
NOTE Most creation commands return the name of the created object as a
return value. This value can be stored as a variable to refer to the object at a
later time. This is especially useful when referring to controls within a user
interface.
3 Edit the height ratio of the named torus by typing the following:
cmds.torus(testVarName,edit=True, hr=0.4)
When the edit flag is set to True, the command is put in edit mode. When
in edit mode, all flags within the brackets of the command now change
the attributes of the specified object.
NOTE The edit flag does not need to be the first flag in a command. It is a
named argument and can be positioned anywhere within the command after
the positional arguments.
8 Output the value of the transferred MEL variable using Python commands:
print TransferMELvar;
■ Edit the attributes of objects using a command with the edit flag.
■ Execute Python commands from the MEL interpreter and execute MEL
commands from the Python interpreter.
The MEL tutorials introduce some other uses for scripting in Maya. You can
follow through with the MEL tutorials by using the Python Command
Reference to translate MEL commands to their Python equivalents.
Python can also be used to write scripted plug-ins. For more information, see
Introduction to Maya Python API in the API guide.
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from its
installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
717
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25.
4 (Optional) Set the current project folder to the Assets tutorial folder by
selecting File > Project > Set. Then navigate to the GettingStarted
folder, select the Assets folder and click OK.
Introduction
In this lesson, you create a container representing the provided fire truck
model. You then publish attributes from each part and create a template to
define future emergency vehicles.
In this lesson you’ll be introduced to some of the asset options Maya provides
by learning how to:
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do the following steps before
beginning:
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the Lesson.
Creating a container
A container is the first building block of an asset and is used to contain related
nodes in your scene. A container is not visible in the main viewport, but you
can select it from the Outliner, Hypergraph Connections editor, and Asset
Editor.
In this case, all the fire truck components (including lights) are grouped
together. This is important because you want the fire truck components to
move together when animated. Thus, the fire truck group node is the central
node to the container, and thus will become the container’s root node.
Publishing attributes
Now that the fire truck is encapsulated, you can publish attributes from the
individual pieces to make them available at the container level.
A published attribute on a container is bound to an attribute of the object
inside. When a user changes the published attribute’s value, the value of the
corresponding internal attribute is changed as well. You can choose to publish
➤ In the Outliner, select Display > Container Contents > Under Container.
Now Fire_truck_GRP and its children appear under the Fire_truck_CNT
object.
5 In the Publish Attribute Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings.
6 In the Attribute name section, select Custom name and then type
Front_Right_Door in the Custom name field.
The name Front Right Door represents the published name for this
attribute and represents the door’s rotation in the fire truck container’s
interface.
7 Click Apply.
The Front Right Door attribute now appears in the Fire_truck_CNT section
of the Channel Box.
Now, in the Attribute Editor or Channel Box you can input values into
the Front Right Door field to open and close the door. Notice that as you
change the value, the value of door_open under Doors_GRP changes to
match. This is because your published name (Front_Right_door) is bound
Cab_door_f_l_GRP Front_Left_Door
Cab_door_r_r_GRP Rear_Right_Door
Cab_door_r_l_GRP Rear_Left_Door
10 Click Close.
NOTE The Door Open attribute for each door is a custom attribute that controls
the Y rotation of each door. Although you could publish the rotate Y attribute of
each door directly, these custom attributes are provided so that each door opens
as the value increases from 0 to 1. Without these attributes, some doors would
open as their rotation increases and others would open as their rotation decreases.
You will learn how to create a custom attribute in the next section.
3 Make sure the Wheels_GRP tab is currently active, then in the Attribute
Editor, select Attributes > Add Attributes.
The Add Attribute window appears.
6 Click Add.
Maya adds the new attribute to Wheels_GRP in the Extra Attributes section
of the Attribute Editor. The Add Attribute window stays open.
8 Click Close.
Your custom attributes can be found in the Extra Attributes section of the
Attribute Editor. However, if you modify their values, nothing happens. This
is because you have not connected them to anything yet.
1 Open the Connection Editor by selecting Windows > General Editors >
Connection Editor.
NOTE If Outputs does not appear over the left column in the Connections
Editor, click the to <- from button to reset its position.
If you adjust the value of Front_wheel_turn, both front wheels turn together.
Next you need to make the front and rear wheels spin in unison.
Now if you adjust the value of the wheel_spin attribute in the Attribute Editor
or Channel Box, all four wheels spin in unison. Although, in some cases, it’s
useful for the front and back wheels to be able to spin at different rates, the
current setup is fine for this tutorial.
Now you can publish your custom attribute to the container. You can do this
directly from the Attribute Editor.
1 In the Attribute Editor, right-click Front Wheel Turn and select Publish
to ‘Fire_truck_CNT’ from the marking menu.
Both attributes are published to the fire truck container with the same
published names as their corresponding custom attributes.
Creating a template
Once you’ve published all your attributes, you can create a template from
your asset. A template defines which published attributes an asset needs to be
considered complete. You can then re-purpose this template for use with
future fire truck models, or in our case, any emergency vehicle.
To create a template, you first need to open the Asset Editor.
The Asset Editor allows you to manage all the containers and templates in
your scene from a single interface. From the Asset Editor you can publish and
unpublish attributes, change published names, bind and unbind attributes to
published names, and create templates and views.
The Asset Editor is divided into two columns. The left column shows you all
the containers in your scene in a format similar to the Outliner. The right
column shows you all the published names associated with a container. In
order to see the published names for a container, you have to pin a container
first.
Now that you’ve pinned the fire truck container, you are ready to create a
template.
To create a template
4 Click Save.
Maya creates a template file.
Notice that once you create a template file, the small arrows next to the
published names in the right column change from red to green. This signifies
that these published names come from the template and are currently bound.
Notice that even though you created a new View, all the attributes are still
visible in the right column. Since we only want the animation controls visible,
we need to customize this View.
To customize a View
NOTE If you prefer, you can also use any external text editing tool to perform
the following steps.
6 Scroll to the bottom of the Script Editor until you find the tag
<view name='Animator' template='emergency_vehicle'>
Underneath this tag, delete the following:
■ <property name='headlight_intensity'/>
■ <property name='siren_intensity'/>
■ <property name='interior_light_intensity'/>
■ <property name=’transMinusRotatePivot’/>
11 Click Save.
You’ve now customized the View by leaving only the attributes an animator
would be interested in. However, this is still not reflected in the Asset Editor.
To see your changes, you need to refresh to the Asset Editor.
Now repeat the procedure to create a Shader view, but with the following
changes:
■ <property name='rotate'/>
■ <property name='scale'/>
■ <property name='visibility'/>
■ <property name='Front_L_Door_Open'/>
■ <property name='Rear_R_Door_Open'/>
■ <property name='Rear_L_Door_Open'/>
■ <property name='front_wheel_turn'/>
■ <property name='wheel_spin'/>
■ <property name=’transMinusRotatePivot’/>
■ <property name='toggle_headlights'/>
■ <property name='toggle_front_flashers'/>
■ <property name='toggle_rear_flashers'/>
■ <property name='toggle_sirens'/>
■ <property name='toggle_interior_light'/>
Now you have two different Views that are useful for two different artists. You
can switch between Views in the Asset Editor by selecting View > Name, and
then selecting the name of the View you want to set.
2 In the Attribute Editor, under the Fire_truck_CNT tab, open the Container
Attributes section.
This section displays all of the container’s own attributes.
5 Click Open.
Now if you look at the Outliner, the expand icon next to Fire_truck_CNT has
disappeared. If you try clicking it, Maya does not allow you to expand it to
see its children.
■ You can create a container that encapsulates existing objects in the scene.
■ You can create custom attributes, connect them to objects in the scene,
and then publish those custom attributes.
■ You can use the Asset Editor to create a template for an existing asset.
■ You can set an asset to Black Box mode to hide its unpublished contents.
Introduction
In this lesson you first learn how to import existing assets into a scene. You
then apply the emergency vehicle template you created in Lesson 1: Setting
up an asset to a police car in the scene and then use the matching published
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do the following steps before
beginning:
1 Make sure you’ve done the steps in Preparing for the Lesson.
3 Click Import.
The lightpost is imported into the scene.
5 In the lightpost_CNT section, set the translate values to -637, 0.85, -72.
You can now duplicate this lightpost container to set up more lightposts
in regular intervals across your scene.
3 In the Create Container options window, select Edit > Reset Settings.
However, there are a set of published names without icons next to them. These
represent published names that the template is expecting, but couldn’t find.
In some cases this may mean you need to bind and publish additional
attributes to fulfill them.
NOTE The icons in the Published Nodes section appear yellow because templates
do not recognize published nodes.
1 In the left panel of the Asset Editor, click the square expand icon ( ).
The contents of the container appears.
NOTE If you do not see the circular expand icons ( ), make sure that
Display > Attributes (Channels) is turned on in the Asset Editor.
3 Scroll down and click the circular expand icon ( ) next to the Trans
Minus Rotate Pivot attribute.
■ In the left panel, select Trans Minus Rotate Pivot and then in the right
A small green icon appears next to the published name indicating that
it is now bound and the bind icon changes to an unbind icon. The name
of the attribute it is bound to appears on the right side of the bind icon.
When you are finished all the icons in the police_car_CNT section should be
green. Your template is now valid.
Swapping assets
Assets with partial or fully identical sets of published names can be swapped
while maintaining the values of the matching published attributes. This allows
you to quickly re-purpose scenes or swap different assets in and out of your
current scene.
5 In the Transfer Attribute Values Options window, select Edit > Reset
Settings.
6 Turn on Values.
The fire truck jumps to the police car’s position so that they overlap. If you
play the animation now, the fire truck follows the police car’s previous path
and then stops outside the apartment building and opens its doors. The police
car remains stationary.
To reference an asset
4 Click Reference.
6 Click Reference.
An entry appears in the Reference Editor. This represents the police car. You
can turn the reference on and off by clicking the check box next to the
reference name.
Now you can move the police car asset to the appropriate spot in your scene.
Up until now, you’ve been using the Outliner to select your containers.
However, you can change the selection method so that you can select them
in your scene.
4 Click Save.
Now if you click on any part of the police car in the main scene, Maya selects
the object’s container.
Now select the Move Tool and move the police car to the edge of one of the
streets in the scene. Using the same procedure outlined above, reference the
same police car file 3 more times and arrange the police cars around the scene,
but not in the path of the fire truck.
2 Click Reference.
A file browser appears.
4 Click Reference.
5 Use the Move Tool to position the explosion a window on the building
that the fire truck stops at. You can also use the Rotate Tool to angle the
fire out towards the street.
Now if you play the scene, the apartment burns before the fire truck arrives.
4 Click Export.
Maya creates a proxy file.
1 In the Reference Editor, select the referenced flame file that appears next
The container for your fire still appears in the Outliner, however if you expand
it, only a single locator node appears (instead of the fire’s group node).
Likewise, the fire in your scene has been replaced with a locator node. Your
interaction with this container has not changed, you can still assign values
to the published attributes and move the locator around the scene. When you
reload the proxy container again, the fire reflects those changes. However, if
you play the scene when the proxy container is active, the scene playback is
much faster.
4 Click Open.
Maya opens the proxy file.
The proxy file consists of a single locator at the center of the scene. You
can add geometry to this file to customize the representation of the fire.
NOTE Make sure Interactive Creation is turned off in the Create > Polygon
Primitives menu.
■ Height: 16.5
■ Length: 6.5
8 Click Create.
A polygon cube appears in the scene.
13 Expand flame_CNT.
14 Select pCube1 and middle-mouse drag it onto the locator node inside
flame_CNT.
Performing this step allows you to move the cube and locator together.
You can add vertices and model the cube to shape it look more like fire if you
choose. You can find polygon modeling tips in Polygonal Modeling on page
71.
Now save this file and return to your original scene file. The proxy that was
once a single locator has now changed to a cube that is roughly the size of
the referenced fire effect.
■ Import barricade.mb to block roads and give the fire truck a clear path.
Notice that assets can range from very simple objects (trashbags, trashcans),
to collections of objects (the park), to complex objects with moving parts (the
police car), yet all of them are treated as single black box container nodes in
the scene each with a single interface. You could take this further by placing
You can now batch render the scene to see your finished product.
2 Position the camera in a spot where you can see the majority of the action.
■ Start frame: 0
5 Click Close.
When the batch render is complete, you can view the sequence by selecting
File > View Sequence, and then opening the first file of the sequence (it has
an extension of .001). Maya then plays back the sequence of rendered images
showing you the final animation.
■ You can reference assets into a scene and instance them multiple times.
With Maya® HairTM, you can create a dynamic hair system to model realistic
hairstyles and hair behavior.
Since Hair is a generic dynamic curve simulation, you can also use these curves
to create non-hair effects, including ropes, chains, a suspension bridge, sea
creatures, or lofted surface from a curve.
With Hair you can simulate:
753
■ hair when swimming underwater
■ other dynamic curve effects such as ropes, chains, cables, wires, etc.
■ convert the Paint Effects hair to polygons and render in any renderer
■ use the curves as path or control curves for any standard Paint Effects
brush, such as feathers or vines. These brushes behave differently than the
default built in Paint Effects as the curves are not the hairs, but controls
■ select a few Current Position curves and loft a surface through them with
construction history.
■ use the curves for output to another renderer that directly supports curve
rendering.
Consider outputting to both NURBS curves and Paint Effects if you want to:
■ use both the curves (for example, as particle emitters to simulate spray
flying off wet hair) and render using the integrated Paint Effects either
directly or by converting to polygons.
1 Make sure you understand the basic concepts of modeling NURBS curves,
animation, and dynamics. For more information, see Maya Help.
3 Select File > New Scene to create a new scene before you start each lesson.
For those scenes that require you to open a file, the Hair scene files are
located in GettingStarted/scenes directory. The GettingStarted
directory is installed in the same location as your Maya software
application.
5 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25 in the Getting
Started with Maya guide.
6 We also provide a completed scene for each of the lessons in this chapter.
If you want to see the expected results of the lessons, you can open the
scenes located in the GettingStarted/Hair directory. The scene filenames
end with Finish.mb, for example, hairFinish1.mb.
Introduction
You can create hair on NURBS and polygonal surfaces. For polygons, UVs
should be non-overlapping and fit between 0 and 1. Automatic mapping is a
quick way to achieve this. (See Automatic UV mapping in the Mapping UVs
Guide in the Maya Help.) In this lesson you are creating hair on a head model.
There are three sets of curves for the hair system.
Start Curves/Posi- This is the position of the hair at the start frame of the simulation.
tion When first created, the Start curves stick straight out from the
surface.
Current Position This is how the hair behaves when you play the simulation, which
includes dynamics. Do not edit the Current Position; just view it.
The Stiffness and Iterations attributes in the Hair system’s Dynam-
ics section are what control the tolerance of the Current Position
achieving the Rest Position.
In this lesson you are introduced to some of the basic concepts of hair by
creating a simple long hairstyle. In this lesson, you learn how to:
■ Use collision constraints to make hair collide with a model’s head, neck
and shoulders.
■ Render hair.
Lesson setup
In this lesson, you'll work with a scene we created for your use.
1 Before beginning the lesson, do the steps in Preparing for the lessons on
page 755.
NOTE Before continuing with the procedures below, make sure the End Time and
Playback End Time in the Range Slider are both set to 10000.
2 Select Hair > Create Hair > and in the Create Hair Options window,
specify the following:
■ Set Output to Paint Effects.
■ Set the Passive fill to 0. No passive curves will be used in this lesson.
The behavior of passive curves is interpolated between neighboring
active curves. For more information, see Passive hair curves in the
Hair guide.
■ Set the Points per hair to 10. This sets the number of segments per
hair. More segments are needed to make long hair look natural or to
create complex short hairstyles. As you increase the number of
segments, you decrease the performance (speed) of the simulation.
■ Set the Length to 10. This value is relative to the world space units.
■ Both the Create Rest Curves and Edge Bounded options should be
turned off.
■ Turn the Equalize option on. This ensures the hair curves are evenly
distributed over the surface.
The hair is attached to the scalp and sticks out perpendicular to the
surface. You are looking at the Current Position of the hair, which is also
referred to as the “dynamic” position. Do not edit the hair curves in this
view; edit only in Start Position or Rest Position.
2 Click the Stop button to stop the simulation when the hair is relaxed
as it is in the following image.
2 In the Dynamics section the default value for Stiffness is 0.10. Since the
hair is quite stiff, reduce the Stiffness value to 0.07.
3 Select Solvers > Interactive Playback to play the simulation. Watch the
hair begin to relax more.
1 When you are playing the hair simulation, by default you are viewing
the Current position curves. To select all the Current position curves,
click any hair curve and then select Hair > Convert Selection > to Current
Positions.
2 To set the start frame of the hair simulation to how the hair appears now,
select Hair > Set Start Position > From Current.
3 Select Hair > Display> Start Position to view the Start curves and see that
they took on the Current Position.
3 To select the Start curves on the front half of Marion’s face, do the
following:
■ On the Status Line, click the Object Selection Mask button and
choose All Objects Off from the drop-down menu that appears.
■ Drag around the front half of Marion’s head to select the Start curves
as shown in the following image.
6 To curl under the ends of all the Start curves, do the following:
■ Click the button to display the curves and then drag around
Marion’s head to select all the Start curves.
■ Click the button to display CVs and then, using the Select Tool,
select the CVs in the bottom half of all the curves.
■ In the Bend Curves Options window, set Bend Amount to 0.5 and
Twist to 1.0 and then click Bend Curves.
8 Change the display to include the Start curves and the Current Position.
(Hair > Display> Current and Start)
1 To create Rest curves from the shaped Start curves, do the following:
■ Select Hair > Display > Start Position
2 To see the new Rest curves, select Hair > Display> Current and Rest.
3 Select all the hair curves and then click the Play button to play the
simulation. Watch how the Current position hairs flop down because
the Gravity value is quite high (2.5).
4 To see what the hair would look like without any gravity, go to the
Dynamics section in the hairSystemShape1 tab and change the Gravity
value to 0.
Watch the hair try to achieve the Rest position.
5 After the hair reaches the Rest position, change the Gravity value back
to 1.0.
6 As the hair starts to fall due to gravity, increase the Stiffness value to 0.2.
If some Rest curves won’t relax and stabilize, increase Length Flex and
Iterations in the hairSystemShape1 tab.
7 Once the hair stabilizes, click the Stop button to stop the simulation.
8 You can further “hairspray” the curled ends of the Rest curves using the
Stiffness Scale attribute. The curve in the Stiffness Scale graph illustrates
the amount of stiffness applied along the hair curve from root (left side
of the graph) to tip (right side of the graph). Go to the Dynamics section
in the hairSystemShape1 tab and change the Stiffness Scale attribute as
shown in the following image. These changes add more stiffness to the
end of the hair, which will hold the bend more firmly.
9 Play the simulation to see the effect of the changes to Stiffness Scale.
11 To reset the Start curves from the simulation, select Hair > Set Start
Position> From Current.
1 In the panel, select Show > Locators so you can see collision constraints,
which are locators, when you create them.
■ Using the Select Tool, drag around all the hair curves and select Hair
> Convert Selection > To Start Curves.
■ Using the Scale Tool, resize the sphere so it expands beyond Marion’s
head and you can see it.
■ Using the Move Tool, move the sphere up the Y-axis so the top of the
sphere is aligned with the top of Marion’s head.
■ Using the Scale Tool again, resize the sphere so it matches the basic
shape of Marion’s head. First try scaling in the X direction to adjust
the width of the sphere from ear to ear. Then tumble the camera to
see the side of Marion’s head and scale in the Z direction to adjust
the sphere width from the back of Marion’s head to her nose. You
may also need to move the sphere to tweak its size and position, as
shown in the images below.
■ Using the Scale Tool, resize the sphere so it extends beyond Marion’s
neck and you can see it.
■ Using the Move Tool, move the sphere down the Y-axis so the top of
the sphere is aligned with the top of Marion’s torso.
■ Using the Scale Tool again, resize the sphere so it matches the basic
dimensions of Marion’s upper torso. First try scaling in the X direction
to adjust the width of the sphere from shoulder to shoulder. Then
tumble the camera to see the side of Marion’s head and scale in the
Z direction to adjust the sphere width from the back of Marion’s torso
to the front of it. You may also need to move the sphere to tweak its
size and position, as shown in the images below.
5 Click the button to rewind to the start frame and play the
simulation.
Watch how the hair collides with the collision constraints you created.
The hair at the front now rests on the torso and the hair at the back curls
under the torso, instead of intersecting it like it did before the collisions
were set.
6 Stop the simulation when the hair is relaxed. Should the hair be unruly
and not relax, you may need to increase the Stiffness or the Iterations in
the Dynamics section of the hairSystemShape1 tab of the Attribute Editor.
7 Select the hair, then select Hair > Set Start Position > From Current so
the hair respects the collisions at the start frame of the simulation.
■ Click the Render Settings button on the Status Line. The Render
Settings window appears.
1 To select the hair system, drag around the hair curves and select Hair >
Convert Selection > to Hair Systems.
■ Thinning to 0.5, which controls how much the hair thins out from
root to tip.
■ Clump Width to 0.3, which controls the width of the hair clump from
root to tip. To further modify the hair clump width, you could adjust
the Clump Width Scale attribute, which allows you to vary the width
along the hair from root to tip.
3 Click the Render Current Frame button to render the hair to see
the changes you’ve made to the hair.
■ Curl Frequency to 15, which is the rate of curl. The higher the value
is, the more curls there are.
2 Click the Render Current Frame button to render the hair to see
the changes you’ve made to the hair.
■ the hair is being lit by all three lights, therefore the intensity of the light
is tripled
4 In the light’s Attribute Editor, go to the Shadows section and in the Depth
Map Shadow Attributes subsection, turn on Use Depth Map Shadows.
1 To select the hair system, drag around the hair curves and select Hair >
Convert Selection > to Hair Systems.
3 Render the hair to see the changes. The hair looks much more natural
now.
■ a paint brush painting on canvas, bristles colliding with the surface (hair
simulates paint brush bristles, Fluid emitters on the canvas controlled by
expressions)
In addition you can assign a Paint Effects brush to a hair system as shown in
the image below.
Introduction
Using Maya Hair, you can create dynamic non-hair models and effects. You
can make NURBS curves dynamic, or you can use a hair system to create a
Lesson setup
In this lesson, you work with a new empty scene and change the playback
range.
2 In the Time Slider change both the End Time value and Playback End
Time value to 300.
1 To create a NURBS plane, select Create > NURBS Primitives > Plane, then
click-drag in the scene to create a plane.
(If you have previously shut off the interactive primitive creation option,
simply click once in the scene to create the primitive at the origin.)
2 Using the Scale Tool , resize the plane in the X direction as shown
in the image below.
3 With the plane selected, select Hair > Create Hair > , set the following
options and then click Create Hairs:
■ Output to NURBS Curves
■ Passive fill to 0
■ Randomization to 0
■ Length to 10
■ Turn off the options Create Rest Curves, Edge Bounded and Equalize
Move Tool , move the plane up the Y axis so the bottom of the
hair just touches the ground plane, as shown in the following image.
(Ensure you do not select the hair when selecting the plane.)
5 Create a directional light (Create > Lights > Directional Light) and do the
following:
■ Move the light above and to the left of the curtain.
6 Create a NURBS sphere (Create > NURBS Primitives > Sphere) and move
it along the Z-axis so it’s in front of the curtain.
8 To set the keyframe for the sphere and move it through the curtain, as
in the image below, do the following:
■ Go to frame 100 in the Time Slider.
1 To select the hair system, drag around the hair curves and then select
Hair > Convert Selection > To Hair Systems.
2 In the hairSystemShape1 tab of the Attribute Editor, set the hair system
attributes as follows:
■ In the Clump and Hair Shape section, set Clump Width to 0.
1 Select the hair system and the sphere (drag around the hair curves and
sphere).
1 To select the hair system, drag around the hair curves and select Hair >
Convert Selection > To Hair Systems.
■ in the Hair Color Scale section, Hair Color to white so the brush’s
bead color appears
7 Dolly in close to the curtain (Alt + the right mouse button) and click the
1 Dolly and tumble in the scene until you are facing the curtain directly.
2 Drag to select all the hair curves and then select Hair > Convert Selection
> To Start Curves.
4 Select Hair > Modify Curves > Lock Length. This ensures the entire curve
is modified when you transform CVs in the next steps.
5 Click the button on the Status Line to display the CVs on the curves.
6 Select the middle three rows of CVs on the selected hair curves and then,
using the Scale Tool, scale the CVs inwards so the hairs are pulled together.
1 Click the button on the Status Line to display the Start curves (not
the CVs).
2 With the bound hair curves still selected, select Hair > Create Constraint
> Hair to Hair.
A constraint locator is created and connected to the selected curves.
4 Change the hair display to the Current Position (Hair > Display > Current
Position).
1 Display the Start curves and the Current Position (Hair > Display > Current
and Start).
3 Stop the simulation as soon as the curves relax below the constraint, but
before the collision occurs.
4 Select the bound Start curves (these are the bound curves that are not
blue) and then select Hair > Set Start Position > From Current.
You may have to repeat steps 2 to 4 a few times until you are happy with
the look of the bound curtains at the beginning of the simulation.
To render the Paint Effects hair using the Maya Software renderer
■ Click the Render Settings button on the Status Line. The Render
Settings window appears.
3 Play the simulation and stop at the frame you want to render.
789
■ Open water fluid effects – Use shaders to create realistic wave motion on
large bodies of water.
This chapter includes the following lessons, which introduce you to some
basic Fluid Effects concepts:
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25 in the Getting
Started with Maya guide.
4 Switch to shaded display mode for a hardware render view of the fluid
simulations (Shading > Smooth Shade All on the view menu bar).
5 In the Time and Range slider, set the start frame to 1 and end frame to
200.
6 Before you perform the lessons in this chapter, ensure that the Interactive
Creation option for primitives is turned off by selecting Create > Polygon
Primitives > Interactive Creation and Create > NURBS Primitives >
Interactive Creation. That is, ensure that a check mark does not appear
beside either of these menu items.
Introduction
Next, you add fluid to the container. To do this, you add values to the
container for specific properties of the fluid: Density, Color, Velocity,
Fuel, and Temperature. You can add any or all of these properties to create
a fluid effect. One way to put properties into a container is to create them
with a fluid emitter.
1 With the container selected, choose Fluid Effects > Add/Edit Contents >
Emitter.
Maya creates a fluid emitter called fluidEmitter1 and places it at the center
of the fluid container.
2 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
The fluid emitter creates Density values and emits them into the
container.
2 Show the Attribute Editor in the right panel of the Maya window, and
click the fluidShape tab.
3 Look in the Contents Method section. The Contents Method defines how
a fluid property is defined in the container, if at all.
Notice that Density and Velocity are set to Dynamic Grid.
The Dynamic Grid setting divides the container into virtual rectangular
units called voxels (volume pixels). You place the values in this virtual
grid by emitting them, painting them, or adding a predefined initial state.
At each step of the simulation, Maya recalculates the values in each voxel
using the fluid dynamics solver. This is what creates the dynamic motion
of the fluid.
4 Make the density fall instead of rise by opening the Dynamic Simulation
section of the Attribute Editor and setting the following:
■ Change the Gravity value to -9.8. (Acceleration due to gravity is -9.8
m/s2 in the physical world.)
5 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
7 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
■ Boundary X: None
■ Boundary Y: None
10 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
Notice that the fluid no longer collides with the sides of the container—it
appears to pass through the sides. The fluid behaves as though the
container boundaries don’t exist. Note that even though the fluid appears
to pass through the container boundaries, it does not exist outside the
boundary. Fluids can only exist inside containers.
1 Select the fluid container and choose Fluid Effects > Add/Edit Contents
> Emitter.
Maya creates a second fluid emitter called fluidEmitter2 and places it at
the center of the fluid container, in the same position as the first emitter.
2 With fluidEmitter2 still selected, select the Move Tool (Hotkey: w) and
drag the emitter to the right of the container, so the emitters no longer
overlap.
Make sure you keep the emitter inside the container and on the plane
by dragging only the X and Y manipulators. If you move the emitter
outside the container, it will not emit.
3 Open the Attribute Editor in the right panel of the Maya window, and
click the fluidEmitter2 tab.
8 In the scene view, select fluidEmitter1, the emitter in the center of the
container.
12 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
■ Select Create > Polygon Primitives > Plane > . The Polygon Plane
Options window opens.
■ In the window, select Edit > Reset Settings to reset the plane settings
to the default ones, and then click Create.
2 In the Attribute Editor, click the pPlane1 tab and scale, translate, and
modify the plane as follows:
■ Translate: -2 2 0
■ Rotate Axis: 0 0 40
■ Scale: 10 1 1
4 Select Fluid Effects > Make Collide. This makes the plane a collision object.
5 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
The fluid collides with the plane as it moves through the container. It
does not pass through the plane.
■ Emit fluid properties into the container to create a dynamic fluid effect.
■ Modify forces acting on the fluid container to change the behavior of the
contents of the container (Gravity and Turbulence).
The hardware render of the simulation provided you with a fast, realistic
representation of the fluid. The final step would be to do a software render.
Although we looked at a 2D fluid, the same concepts apply to 3D fluids. In
the lessons that follow, you’ll work with 3D fluids and explore methods other
than fluid emitters for adding contents to a fluid container. You’ll look at the
texturing capabilities that are part of the built-in shader. You’ll also learn
about the Temperature and Fuel fluid properties and how you can use them
in your effects.
Beyond this, you can also:
■ Give the fluid a hard surface (surface render) for a globby or lava-like effect,
rather than the soft, cloud-like surface you saw in this lesson.
For details on these topics, see the Fluid Effects information in the Maya Help.
Introduction
In the first lesson, you created a simple 2D dynamic fluid. 3D fluids intrinsically
require extra data to define them, which can make them very complex. This
extra data can slow a dynamic simulation exponentially because more
calculations (solving) must be performed at every step of the simulation. For
a less memory intensive effect, you could use a 2D fluid (with less data), or
you could create a 3D non-dynamic effect.
In non-dynamic fluid effects, the fluid property values are predefined within
Maya and stay constant over time, which means they don’t have to be
recalculated. You create the appearance of the fluid by texturing a special fluid
shader that is assigned to the fluid. This shader is built into the fluid for better
performance. If you want the fluid effect to have motion, you can animate
(keyframe) the texture attributes. Because Maya doesn’t solve the fluid
dynamics equations, rendering this type of fluid is much quicker than
rendering a dynamic fluid.
In this lesson, you learn the fundamentals of creating non-dynamic fluids by
creating a cloud bank using a 3D non-dynamic fluid. You learn how to:
■ Texture the contents of the fluid using the built-in fluid shader.
Before beginning the lesson, do the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page
790.
2 Set the container options as follows, then click Apply and Close:
■ X Resolution: 50
■ Y Resolution: 5
■ Z Resolution: 60
■ X Size: 50.0
■ Y Size: 5.0
■ Z Size: 60.0
TIP It’s good practice to make the container’s Resolution and Size proportional
to ensure that the voxels are square making the quality the same along each
axis.
2 With the fluid container selected, show the Attribute Editor in the right
panel of Maya, and click on the fluidShape1 tab.
Set Velocity, Temperature, and Fuel properties to Off. (They’re not used
in this effect.)
By setting the Density Gradient to Constant, you made all the Density
values in the container the same—a value of 1. You can scale these values,
but otherwise, they cannot change.
3 In the Opacity subsection, check that the Opacity Input is set to Density.
The opacity represents how much the Density will block light. You’ll
look more at Opacity later in this lesson.
1 Turn on hardware texturing display so you can see the effect of the
textures on the fluid without rendering by selecting Shading > Hardware
Texturing from the scene view menu.
Notice that the Density now has a slightly blotchy look to it, with areas
that are more opaque and areas that are more transparent. This texture
provides the standard 3D noise used in the 3D Solid Fractal texture
included with Maya.
■ Depth Max: 4
Decreasing the Amplitude makes the areas with low Density more
transparent and the areas with high Density more opaque.
Increasing Depth Max adds detail. Increasing it will also increase render
time.
7 Change the following Billow texture attributes to make the “billows” less
dense, more spotty, and with randomly different sizes.
■ Billow Density: 0.6
■ Spottyness: 2.0
■ Click the first dot on the Opacity graph to select the position marker.
Position markers mark the location on the graph from left to right (the
Opacity Input value). The outline of the dot is white when a position is
selected.
The position marker moves to the right. Now, for Density values between
0 and 0.10, the Opacity values will be 0. This means that Density that was
previously partially transparent will be completely transparent.
The more transparent areas of cloud disappeared, but now the solid areas
of cloud are less opaque.
1 In the Attribute Editor, under the fluidShape1 tab, open the Lighting
section.
The clouds now have some darker areas on them, giving them some
depth.
■ Texture the contents of the fluid using the built-in fluid texturing
capabilities of the fluidShape. (You can also texture dynamic fluids using
the same techniques.)
To make the texture move, you would keyframe the Texture Time attribute
in the Textures section of the Attribute Editor. For details on keyframing
attributes, see the Maya Help.
You modified several texture attributes in this lesson, but there are many more
attributes for customizing textures. Also, note that the non-dynamic effects
you can create using texturing are not limited to clouds. Here are some
examples:
To learn more about how to use texturing and other fluid attributes, study
the Fluid Effects examples that are included with Maya (Fluid Effects > Get
Fluid Example) and look at the Notes section at the bottom of the Attribute
Editor for example fluids. It includes information about the selected effect,
pointing out the key aspects of its construction.
For further information on Fluid Effects, see the Maya Help.
Introduction
■ Paint in a 3D container.
Before beginning the lesson, do the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page
790.
Creating a 3D container
1 Select Fluid Effects > Create 3D Container > .
The Create 3D Container Options window opens.
2 In the window, select Edit > Reset Settings to restore the Resolution and
Size settings to the defaults 10 10 10 and 10 10 10, respectively.
The default container size and resolution are adequate to illustrate the
concepts in this lesson.
Next, add fluid to the container. In the first lesson, you added fluid to
the container by emitting it into a Dynamic Grid. In the second lesson,
you added fluid to the container by selecting a predefined gradient. In
this lesson, you will add fluid to the container by painting property values
inside it.
➤ With the container still selected, choose Fluid Effects > Add/Edit Contents
> Paint Fluids Tool > .
The Tool Settings window opens and a slice displays at the origin of the fluid
container. The slice is represented by a plane with dotted edges and fluid
1 At the top of the Tool Settings window, click Reset Tool to set the Paint
Fluids Tool settings to the default values.
2 Select the fluid properties you want to paint. In the Paint Attributes
section of the Tool Settings window, beside Paintable Attributes, select
Density and Fuel. You will paint both these properties at the same time.
You could paint each property separately, but for this example, the values
you paint will be the same for both. It is more efficient to paint them
both at the same time.
A message appears prompting you to set the fluid’s Fuel method to
Dynamic Grid. By setting the Fuel method to Dynamic Grid, the fuel
values you place in the container grid (in this case, by painting them)
are recalculated by the fluid dynamics solver and changed during
simulation. The Density method is defined as Dynamic Grid by default.
The orientation of the slice changes relative to your view. The slice is
perpendicular to the axis with the manipulators. The color of the
5 Tumble so that the slice is perpendicular to the Y axis and then click the
open lock icon to lock the slice axis.
The lock closes. Now when you tumble, the slice remains perpendicular
to Y. It does not switch to the other axes. This allows you to change the
view in any way and still be able to paint on the same slice.
6 Drag the top move arrow down along the axis to the first slice at the
bottom of the container. The number of slices along each axis corresponds
with the resolution of the fluid container. The numbering starts at 0 at
the intersection of the axes. For this container the resolution is 10 10 10,
so the slices are numbered from 0 to 9.
The help line displays the location of the selected slice.
Fluid Slice Location: 0.000
8 Drag the brush on the slice to paint values. Paint until the entire slice is
filled with values.
The values display as yellow because you are painting two properties at
the same time. Density values are represented by the opacity of the shaded
values, while Fuel values are represented by color. The range of Fuel values
corresponds with a ramp of colors from blue (values of 0) to yellow (values
of 1).
To make the fluid deeper, you could move the slice to Fluid Slice Position
1, paint, move the slice to Fluid Slice Position 2, paint, and so on. But a
quicker way is to resize the slice to make it thicker and then flood the
entire slice with values.
Flooding filled each voxel in the subvolume with Fuel and Density values
of 1.
Notice that the values display as shaded planes rather than as a solid
mass. This is an interactive display feature for shaded display mode.
Displaying more shaded planes (slices) produces more detail but reduces
the speed of the screen draw. You can change this display feature (Slices
Per Voxel) and others in the Display section of the Attribute Editor.
Now that the container has Density and Fuel in it, you are ready to start
a reaction by adding Temperature. You could think of this as putting a
lit match into a container of gasoline.
2 Click Set to Dynamic. The Density and Fuel values disappear. The values
are still there, but only Temperature values now display. Currently there
are no temperature values in the container.
3 Change the brush so you can paint through the entire thickness of the
slice with a single stroke. In the Stroke section of the Tool Settings
window, change Stamp Depth (3D) to 2. The brush changes, showing
how deep the brush stroke will paint.
If you make the brush depth thicker than the depth of the slice, only the
space within the slice will be painted.
1 Choose the Select Tool (Hotkey: q) to leave the Paint Fluids Tool. The
manipulators disappear and now you see the fluid as it will render
■ The Density values in the container will now take on the colors defined
on the color bar.
4 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
■ Paint in a 3D container.
You can control how quickly the reaction takes place during the simulation,
the temperature required to start the reaction, how much heat and light the
reaction releases over time, and other aspects of the reaction using the
attributes in the Fuel section under Contents Details in the fluidShape Attribute
Editor.
For a more realistic look, you can also texture the fluid using the built-in
texturing attributes in the Textures section.
For more information on Fuel and texturing attributes, see Fluid Effects in the
Maya Help.
Introduction
■ Modify the attributes for an expression that controls the buoyancy of the
boat in the ocean.
Before beginning the lesson, do the steps in Preparing for the lessons on page
790.
1 Select Fluid Effects > Ocean > Create Ocean. Maya creates an ocean plane
and assigns an ocean shader to it.
3 With the preview plane still selected, choose the Scale Tool (Hotkey: r)
and make the patch bigger by dragging the center scale box to the right.
Make it approximately 25 times bigger. (Look at the scaling numbers in
the help line.)
4 Play the simulation using the playback controls at the bottom of the
Maya window.
■ Click the directionalLight1 tab and rotate the light as follows to direct
the light rays onto the ocean. Rotate: -100 42 20
1 Render the current frame to see what the ocean looks like before you
modify the ocean shader attributes. On the Status line, click the render
current frame icon.
3 Open the Ocean Attributes section and change the following values:
■ Num Frequencies: 12
4 Play the simulation to see the effect of your changes on the displacement
of the ocean waves.
7 Make the tops of the waves form crests by adjusting the Wave Peaking
graph in the Attribute Editor.
Wave Peaking controls the amount of crest formation for waves across
the range of wave frequencies. It simulates a side-to-side sloshing of waves,
as opposed to an up-down motion. Wave Peaking is only applied to
turbulent waves (where Wave Turbulence is not zero).
9 Make the highlights dimmer so they don’t pop out as much, and bigger.
Open the Specular Shading section and change the following settings:
■ Specularity: 0.45
■ Eccentricity: 0.1
Floating objects
You can make geometry (for example, a boat) float in the ocean, moving
appropriately with the motion of waves. The following steps show you how
using a simple polygon cube.
1 Create a polygon cube (Select Create > Polygon Primitives > Cube).
2 In the Attribute Editor, click the pCube1 tab and scale the cube as follows:
■ Scale: 10 10 10
3 Select both the cube and the ocean plane (not the preview plane) at the
same time and select Fluid Effects > Ocean > Make Boats.
Maya creates a boat locator at the center of the cube to mark the cube’s
position in space. The locator is connected to a predefined expression
that simulates buoyancy effects. The expression is connected to the wave
heights (displacement) of the ocean.
To learn more about expressions, look at the Expressions lessons in
Getting Started with Maya.
5 In the Attribute Editor, click the locatorShape tab and in the Extra
Attributes section, modify the following options. These serve as inputs
to the expression.
■ Buoyancy: 0.75
■ Roll: 0.1
■ Pitch: 0.2
Increasing Buoyancy makes the box float more and sink into the ocean
less. Decreasing the Roll and Pitch values causes the cube to roll less from
side to side, and pitch less forwards and backwards as a result of the wave
motion.
To learn more about ocean shader attributes, look at the ocean shader examples
that are included with Maya (in the Fluid Effects menu). Some of these
Motor Boats
You can create a game-style boat simulation using the Fluid Effects > Ocean
> Make Motor Boats command. Once you set up hotkeys for the rudder and
throttle of the boat, you can “drive” the boat in the ocean. The boat will roll,
pitch, and jump over waves appropriately.
Boat Wakes
You can create boat wakes using the Fluid Effects > Ocean > Create Wake
command. Wake fluids do not use the Navier Stokes solver like regular fluids,
but use the Spring Mesh Solver. A fluid emitter is used to drive the motion of
the fluid.
Ponds
If a smaller body of water is what you had in mind, you can create a pond
using Fluid Effects > Pond > Create Pond. Ponds are 2D fluids that use a spring
mesh solver and a height field. You can generate bubbles, ripples, and waves
using the Create Wake options for the pond.
For details on these topics and others, see Fluid Effects in the Maya Help.
With the Maya® FurTM feature, you can create fur and short hair on all surface
types in Maya. A fur description in Maya defines all the attributes for the fur (for
example, fur color, width, length, baldness, opacity, curl, density, and so on).
When applying fur, you can use one of the predefined fur descriptions included
with Maya, or you can create your own custom fur description by setting all
the fur attributes yourself.
You can animate fur with keyframe effects like growing fur or changing color.
For a more natural appearance, you can also add movement to fur with dynamics
(for example, wind and gravity).
This chapter includes these lessons:
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■ Lesson 2 Rendering fur: Introduction on page 855
1 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted/Fur directory as your Maya project. For more
information, see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25 in the
Getting Started with Maya guide.
2 Select the Rendering menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions in
this chapter for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected
the Rendering menu set
■ In the Plug-in Manager, locate the Fur plug-in (Fur.mll) and turn on
the loaded checkbox. Wait for the check mark to appear in the
checkbox, then close the Plug-in Manager. You can set the Fur plug-in
to auto load so that it automatically loads each time the Maya
application is launched. The Fur menu will appear to the right of the
Paint Effects menu.
Introduction
Maya provides many predefined fur descriptions. These fur descriptions, also
referred to as presets, can be used as a starting point in creating fur for a model.
Fur description presets can also be customized.
In this lesson you learn how to:
■ Rename surfaces.
■ Paint a fur attribute map to modify the fur length in an area of a surface.
■ Create a new fur description for a surface and modify its attributes.
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning:
1 In the scene view, select the five surfaces to be duplicated: the arm, arm
paw, leg, leg paw, and body. Click one surface, then shift-click the other
surfaces until all of the five surfaces are highlighted.
2 Select Edit > Duplicate Special > . In the Duplicate Special Options
window that appears, select Edit > Reset Settings, then do the following:
■ Change the X Scale value to -1.
To rename objects
➤ For each of the surfaces listed in the following table, do the following:
■ Click the object in the scene view.
■ In the Channel Box, click the object name to select it. You can display
the Channel Box by clicking Show/Hide Channel Box/Layer Editor
button on the Status Line.
■ Type the corresponding new name from the table and press Enter.
Old name New name
leftArm1 rightArm
leftArmpaw1 rightArmpaw
leftLeg1 rightLeg
leftLegpaw1 rightLegpaw
leftBody1 rightBody
1 If the Channel Box isn’t already displayed, click the Show/Hide Channel
Box/Layer Editor button in the Status Line to display the Layer Editor
2 Ensure the Layer Editor is set to Display Layers by clicking the Display
radio button.
5 In the Edit Layer window, set the following and click Save:
■ Name: ExtraParts
In the Layer Editor, the name of the layer updates and its status is now
set to Reference. The Reference display state indicates that the objects in
that layer can still viewed in the scene but cannot be selected.
■ mouth
■ leftEye
■ rightEye
■ leftLid
■ rightLid
■ leftInEar
■ rightInEar
■ leftArmpaw
■ rightArmpaw
■ rightLegpaw
■ groundPlane
7 Right-click the ExtraParts layer in the Layer Editor and choose Add
Selected Objects from the drop-down list that appears.
The selected objects are assigned to the ExtraParts display layer which is
currently set to Reference. You can still view these objects but they cannot
be selected again until you set the display setting for this layer to Normal.
Using reference layers in this fashion aids your workflow by ensuring you
don’t accidentally select unwanted surfaces when applying Fur.
1 In the scene view, drag a selection marquee around the entire model.
All of the surfaces on the bear model are selected except for the ones you
assigned to the referenced ExtraParts display layer.
3 With the surfaces still selected, click the Duckling fur preset in the Fur
shelf.
The Duckling fur preset is assigned to the selected surfaces of the model.
NOTE Reversing the surface normals (Polygons menu set: Normals > Reverse)
is useful when you want to change the surface direction (that is, whether the
surface is oriented inwards or outwards in relation to the model). For example,
duplicating a surface across its axis of symmetry can reverse the surface
normals on the duplicated surface. Using the Reverse Normals feature corrects
this.
When a character has existing animation rigging or texturing and you need
to assign fur, the desired technique for reversing the orientation of the fur
feedback is by reversing the fur normals (Fur > Reverse Fur Normals). Reversing
the fur normals leaves the surface direction unchanged.
1 With only the legs, arms, and top head surfaces selected, switch to the
Polygons menu set and then select Normals > Reverse > .
2 Set the Reverse normals on setting to Selected faces and then click Reverse
Normals.
The normals of the selected polygon surfaces are reversed so that the fur
description points in the correct direction.
Before proceeding to the next section, return to the Rendering menu set.
■ Modifying the Inclination, Polar, and Roll attributes for the fur description
globally.
■ Setting a Fur Direction Offset to change the fur feedback direction locally
on a selected surface.
■ Combing the fur feedback locally on a surface using Maya’s Paint Fur
Attributes tool.
Modifying the Inclination, Polar, and Roll attributes for the assigned fur
description changes the direction attributes on the fur description globally.
You can set these attributes using either the Channel Box or the Attribute
Editor. Inclination sets the angle or slope at which the fur description will
lean in relation to the surface. Polar sets the direction the fur description will
point in relation to the surface normal, much like the hands on a clock face.
Roll sets the angle about which the fur description will be rotated about its
follicle and is used mostly when the fur has curl attributes applied. That is,
you can control whether the curls point up, down, or lay flat on their side.
Modifying these attributes is a good starting point for creating a realistic fur
description. For the original Duckling fur description preset the Inclination,
Polar, and Roll attributes are set to 0.6, 0.5, and 0.5 respectively. You won’t
need to change these for this lesson.
However, when a model is comprised of many surfaces, the fur may have a
tendency to point in a different direction on each separate surface depending
on how the surfaces were originally constructed.
To correct this you can change the direction of the fur using the Fur Direction
Offset. The Fur Direction Offset lets you change the orientation of a fur
description locally on a per-surface basis by applying a relative rotation value
to the fur description as it is applied to the selected surface.
1 Dolly the camera closer to the bear’s head so you can more closely view
the direction of the fur description on the bear’s snout.
The fur appears to point in a clockwise direction about the bear’s snout.
You can change the direction the fur points by changing the Fur Direction
Offset value for the bear’s snout.
The Offset Fur Direction menu lets you rotate a fur description on a
selected surface using direction presets.
4 Click on the 0, 90, 180, and 270 degree presets one at a time until the
fur feedback on the snout points toward the bear’s face.
5 Repeat this process for the remaining surfaces that have fur assigned by
selecting each surface one at a time and orienting the direction of the fur
feedback as follows:
■ The fur feedback on the arms and legs should point in a direction
towards the paws.
■ The fur feedback on the head surfaces should point away from the
center line so it simulates a sewn seam.
■ The fur feedback on the outer ear surfaces should point away from
the bears head.
TIP Dolly and tumble the camera as you work to ensure you have the fur
feedback oriented correctly. Try each offset direction so you know its
effect on the fur feedback on each surface. You can easily set the direction
offset back to its previous setting if it appears incorrect.
6 Close the Offset Fur Direction menu when you are finished orienting the
fur feedback for all of the surfaces that have fur assigned.
Using the Paint Fur Attributes Tool you can paint virtually any fur attribute.
In this lesson you use the Paint Fur Attributes Tool to:
■ reduce the fur length in a localized area on a surface. This is useful when
you want regions with shorter or longer fur on a surface.
■ create bald regions on a surface. This is useful for creating localized fur
effects such as a moustache or goatee on a character, or whiskers on an
animal.
The Paint Fur Attributes Tool does all of the above via attribute maps that you
create by painting directly on the surface. The attribute map modifies the
associated fur attributes you have selected for modification based on the
regions of black, white, or gray that you paint in the map.
Before you begin painting an attribute map you’ll want to hide the nose and
mouth surfaces. Earlier in the lesson you assigned the nose and mouth surfaces
to the ExtraParts reference layer to prevent them from being accidentally
selected in the scene view. To hide these objects you can set the referenced
display layer to invisible.
➤ In the Display Layer Editor, make the ExtraParts layer invisible by clicking
the V that indicates that the layer is visible.
3 In the Paint Fur Attributes Tools Settings window, ensure the following
options are set:
■ Fur Attribute: Length
These settings set the brush to paint a relatively small, soft edged region,
with each stroke of the tool as you replace the existing fur with shorter
fur.
5 Position the brush cursor over the centre of the bear’s snout and begin
stroking in a small circular motion about the center of the snout.
Wherever you paint, the fur feedback updates and becomes shorter in
length.
The snout surface updates to display the fur length attribute map you are
currently painting. The black region at the end of the snout indicates the
area you have just painted. This region of the attribute map indicates
where the fur will be shorter in length when it is rendered. The lighter
gray region indicates where you have not yet painted and where the fur
length will remain unaffected.
You also want the fur to be short in the region of the bear’s mouth as
well.
7 Paint a few overlapping strokes on the region of the snout below the nose
where the mouth surface is located, as shown below.
8 In the Paint Tool Settings editor, set the Paint Operation to Smooth, and
then click Flood to apply a smooth to the entire fur length attribute map.
You can click Flood more than once to apply multiple smooth operations.
TIP If you accidentally paint an area that is too large you can click Ctrl + z
repeatedly to undo your paint strokes.
If you want to begin painting the attribute map again, you can set the Value
to 1 and then click Flood to fill the surface with a white color.
1 Ensure that the snout surface is still active and click the Porcupine fur
preset from the Fur shelf.
A second fur description is assigned to the bear’s snout. The snout appears
cluttered at this point but you’ll rectify it in the following steps.
2 Ensure that the snout surface is still active and select Fur > Paint Fur
Attributes Tool > .
3 In the Paint Fur Attributes Tools Settings window, set the following
options:
■ Fur Attribute: Baldness
4 In the Paint Tool Settings editor, set the Paint Attributes - Paint Operation
to Replace, Value to zero, and then click Flood.
This creates a baldness attribute map for the Porcupine fur description
that is black in color making the Porcupine fur feedback disappear
temporarily.
■ Stroke - Reflection: On
These settings set the brush to paint a relatively small, soft edged stroke,
that is gray in color on the baldness map so that some of the porcupine
fur (that is, whiskers) appear. When reflection is turned on, the stroke
you make on one half of the surface is mirrored on the opposite half.
This lets you create identical whiskers on either half of the snout.
6 Position the brush cursor over the left side of the bear’s snout and make
one short stroke from about the halfway point to the back of the snout,
as shown below.
1 In the Attribute Editor, set the following attributes to modify the whiskers
on the snout surface:
■ Length: 1.5
■ Polar: 1.0
The whiskers update to point outwards on either side of the snout and
appear shorter as a result.
2 Display the Channel Box/Display Layer Editor, and click the visibility
box to display the ExtraParts layer again.
2 In the Attribute Editor, modify the Base and Tip Color attributes for the
TeddyBear fur description by clicking the color swatches for each attribute,
setting the RGB range to 0 to 255, and entering the following RGB values:
■ Base Color R: 62
■ Base Color G: 30
■ Base Color B: 8
■ Tip Color G: 52
■ Tip Color B: 14
These values change the color of the base of the fur to a dark brown, and
the tips of the fur a lighter brown. The fur feedback is updated on the
bear model.
2 In the Display Layer Editor, click the box that displays the letter R until
the box is empty.
To change the display state of a display layer, click repeatedly in the
middle box next to the layer name to cycle the display state from
Reference (R), Template (T), or Normal (empty). When the box is empty
the display layer is no longer referenced and its possible to select all of
the surfaces on the model.
1 In the Attribute Editor, modify the Base and Tip Color attributes for the
InnerEar fur description by clicking the color swatches for each attribute,
setting the RGB range to 0 to 255, and entering the following RGB values:
■ Base Color R: 106
■ Base Color G: 52
■ Base Color B: 14
■ Tip Color B: 91
■ Length: 0.25
■ Inclination: 0.8
■ Tip Width: 0
■ Scraggle: 0.1
Density specifies the number of hairs on a surface. The higher the value,
the thicker the fur. Notice that changing the Density value does not affect
the fur feedback in the scene view; changes to fur density only appear in
the rendered image.
Length sets the fur’s length, in grid units.
Inclination sets how the fur slopes or leans. A value of 0 is fully erect
(normal to the surface), while a value of 1 is flat (tangent to the surface
at the root).
Base and Tip Width specifies width of the hairs at their base and tip.
Scraggle sets the crookedness of the fur. A value of 0 creates no
crookedness, while a value of 1 creates maximum crookedness.
The fur description for the Inner Ear surfaces is updated.
NOTE Some attributes of a fur description are only visible when you render
an image of the fur. You’ll render an image of the teddy bear fur in the next
lesson.
■ Assign parts of a model to display layers—any surfaces that you did not
want fur applied were assigned to a referenced display layer so they would
not get selected accidentally.
■ Reverse surface normals so the fur was oriented to point in the correct
direction—Two methods are possible for correcting the normals; reversing
the surface normals, and reversing the fur normals.
■ You modified the length of the fur description on the bear’s snout and
created whiskers using the Paint Fur Attributes Tool. This tool lets you
paint an attribute map to modify specific fur attributes on an area of a
surface.
You can use the Paint Fur Attributes tool to paint the direction of the fur.
This technique is also referred to as combing the fur because it resembles
the stroking action you perform when combing real hair. Combing the
fur feedback is useful when you need to hide a visible seam between two
surfaces.
For more information and related techniques about Fur, refer to the Maya
Help.
Introduction
In order to see how all of the fur attributes of a fur description appear on a
model you must render an image.
In this lesson, you learn how to:
■ Make changes to the fur description and render the scene again.
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, complete the steps in lesson 1, or do
the following before beginning:
2 Click Edit > Reset Settings, set the following attributes, and then click
Create:
■ Intensity: 1.5
■ Translate Y: 12
■ Translate Z: 34
■ Rotate X: -5
■ Rotate Y: -49
4 Click Create > Lights > Spot Light to create another spotlight at the origin.
This new spotlight will be named spotLight2 and have the same intensity
setting as the first spotlight.
5 In the Channel Box, enter the following values to reposition the second
spotlight:
■ Translate X: 25
■ Translate Y: 15
■ Translate Z: 35
■ Rotate X: -10
■ Rotate Y: 35
6 Click Create > Lights > Spot Light > , set the following attribute, and
then click Create:
■ Intensity: 0.5
7 In the Channel Box, enter the following values to reposition the third
spotlight:
■ Translate Y: 85
■ Translate Z: 7
■ Rotate X: -88
These three light sources will evenly illuminate the model: one will create a
shadow once you have set fur shadowing attributes for the spotlights.
NOTE In this lesson, we will render with the Maya software renderer. However,
the following instructions for fur shadowing can also be applied to lights set up
to render Fur with the mental ray for Maya renderer.
1 Select all three spotlights in the scene by selecting Edit > Select All by
Type > Lights.
All three spotlights in the scene are selected.
TIP When more than one item is selected in the scene view, the Channel
Box displays the name of the last item in the selection list with three dots
after its name to indicate that more than one item is selected.
2 Click Fur > Fur Shadowing Attributes > Add to Selected Light.
This adds adjustable fur shadowing attributes to all three spotlights in
the scene that were not included with the default spotlights. These extra
attributes let you refine how the lights affect the fur on the model when
rendering.
7 In the Attribute Editor, under Shadows > Depth Map Shadow Attributes,
set the following options:
■ Use Depth Map Shadows: On
■ Focus: 40
Depth Map Shadows are one technique for producing shadows in a scene
by determining which objects in the scene are in the path of a shadow
casting light.
Fur Shadows can be incorrectly placed when Auto Focus is turned on. To
avoid this, turn off Auto Focus for all spotlights that have Fur Shadow
Maps turned on and instead set the Focus value to Cone Angle +
(Penumbra * 2).
1 Select Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings to show the Render
Settings window.
2 Ensure that Render Using is set to Maya Software in the drop-down list.
3 From the Render Settings window menu, select Presets > Load Preset >
Default Settings.
This sets the renderer to render an image that is 640 by 480 pixels in size;
large enough to see the fine detail on the fur.
The Render View window appears and an image of the scene is rendered.
■ Add spotlights to the scene—A three light setup is a good starting point
for many renderings.
■ Render the scene to produce an image with fur—You will usually need to
produce multiple iterations of an image in order to produce the final image
or frames of animation that you require.
For more information and related techniques about Fur, Lighting, or Rendering,
refer to the Maya Help.
With the Maya® nCloth™ feature, you can create dynamic cloth effects in Maya.
nCloth is a fast and stable dynamic cloth solution that uses a system of linked
particles to simulate a wide variety of dynamic polygon surfaces, such as fabric
clothing, inflating balloons, shattering surfaces, and deformable objects. nCloth
is generated from modeled polygon meshes. You can model any type of polygon
mesh and make it an nCloth object, which is ideal for achieving specific poses
and maintaining directorial control.
863
Maya provides many predefined nCloths. These sample nCloth objects, also
referred to as presets, can be used as a starting point in creating your own
custom cloth effects.
This chapter includes these lessons:
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25 in the Getting
Started with Maya guide.
3 Select the nDynamics menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions
in this chapter for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected
the nDynamics menu set.
Introduction
For nCloth objects to have realistic cloth behavior, they need to interact or
collide with their environment. This is accomplished by converting the meshes
you want to act like cloth into nCloth objects, and turning all the objects in
their environment that it will come into contact with into passive collision
objects.
In this lesson you learn how to:
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning:
The first step in the nCloth creation process is to convert the polygon object
you want to behave like cloth to an nCloth object.
7 Close the Hypergraph and play back your table cloth’s simulation.
The table cloth passes right through the table, its base, and the floor. This
is because the nCloth does not recognize any of the other objects in your
scene. For the nCloth table cloth to be able to interact with the table, its
base, and the floor, they need to be members of the same Maya Nucleus
solver system as the table cloth.
3 Select nucleus1 from the Solver drop-down list and click Make Collide.
The table polygon mesh is converted to a passive collision object, and
an nRigid handle appears at the center of its mesh in the scene view. You
can use the table’s nRigid handle to quickly select its nRigidShape node
in the Hypergraph or its tab in the Attribute Editor.
The table is also now a member of the nucleus1 Maya Nucleus system.
nRigidShape1 is the passive object properties node which carries all the
passive object attributes for the table.
5 Close the Hypergraph and play back your table cloth’s simulation.
The table cloth now collides with the table. The table cloth now interacts
with the table because the table is a member of the table cloth’s nucleus1
solver system.
Even though you adjusted the table cloth’s Thickness, the table cloth still
does not appear to be making contact with the table’s surface. This is
because passive collision objects, like the table, also possess collision
volumes.
9 In the scene view select the table, and in the Attribute Editor select its
nRigidShape1 tab.
12 In the Collisions section, select Off from the Solver Display drop-down
list.
The table’s Collision Thickness is no longer displayed in the scene view.
The way Collision Thickness appears in the scene view is determined by your
nCloth’s current Collision Flag selection. The Collision Flag drop-down list lets
you specify which of the table cloth’s components participate in its collisions
and which type of collision volume is used by the table cloth. You can adjust
the speed of your nCloth collisions with the Collision Flag at the cost of
collision accuracy.
Face provides the best and most accurate collisions, but it is the slowest
to calculate the collisions for.
5 Change the Collision Flag selection to Vertex. Vertex produces the least
accurate collisions, but it is the fastest to calculate the collisions for.
Vertex and face are useful when you want to speed up your simulation
by reducing the number of collision calculations, or your cloth simulation
does not require the maximum level of collision accuracy (for example,
for a distance shot of colliding nCloth objects).
7 Reset the Collision Flag to the default Face selection, and select Off from
the Solver Display drop-down list.
For more information and related techniques about nCloth, refer to the Maya
Help.
Introduction
Often times, to create certain cloth effects, you need to attach nCloth to other
nCloths or passive collision objects and have those other Maya Nucleus objects
restrict or drive your nCloth’s movements. For example, you can use nCloth
constraints to create buttons on nCloth garments, replace collisions, bind
topologically different nCloth objects together, and exclude and limit nCloth
and passive object collisions.
In this lesson you learn how to:
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning:
To constrain an nCloth
The flag falls downward through the air. For the flag to retain its position
beside the flag pole in XYZ space, it needs to be constrained to the static
flag pole passive object.
NOTE You may need to increase the total number of frames in the timeline.
4 Right-click the flag and select Vertex from the context-sensitive menu
that appears.
The flag switches to vertex display mode.
5 Dolly in the camera so that you can view the vertices along the left side
border of the flag closely.
1 Dolly in the camera so that you can view closely the Point to Surface
constraint links that are visible between the flag and its flag pole.
The flag points and the flag pole surface that are members of the selected
Point to Surface constraint highlight in the scene view.
The selected constrained flag points are removed from the constraint and
their constraint links disappear from the scene view.
■ Constrain nCloth.
Introduction
■ Adjust and paint properties of nCloth to make it behave like real life fabric.
Lesson setup
To ensure the lesson works as described, do these steps before beginning:
The dress in this scene is initially just a mesh and not an nCloth object. Your
first step will be to convert the dress into an nCloth object.
3 Set the Cache directory to the folder to which you want your caches
saved.
5 Click Create.
Maya will begin to play the scene automatically and store the frames in
the directory you specified. When it is finished, click the Play button in
3 In the Collisions section set Collision Flag to Face, Self Collision Flag to
Vertex Face, set Thickness to 0.066 and Self Collide Width Scale to 1.885.
4 Select the nClothShape1 tab and in the Dynamic Properties section set
Mass to 0.7.
3 Select the nClothShape1 tab and in the Dynamic Properties section set
Input Mesh Attract to 1.0.
6 Select nMesh > Paint Vertex Properties > Input Attract > .
In the Tool Settings Editor, the Paint nCloth Attributes Tool becomes the
current tool.
■ Radius(L): 3.0
■ Value: 0
Move the cursor to the dress and you will notice that the cursor becomes
an artisan brush.
13 Using the Tool brush, paint around the top of the bodice.
Make sure to dolly and tumble the camera to ensure you have painted
the entire top of the bodice.
15 Using the Tool brush, paint the rest of the bodice. Be careful not to paint
over your previous values.
16 Dolly and tumble to ensure that you have painted the entire bodice.
4 Select nSolver > Initial State > Relax Initial State > .
The Relax Initial State Options window appears.
By setting the Steps option to 300 you are setting the nCloth dress’ initial
position to mimic that of its position at frame 300 of the animation
(when the dress has fallen onto the body and relaxes).
NOTE If you de-selected the constraint and have trouble re-selecting it, you
can select Window > Outliner to open the Maya Outliner. You can then select
the constraint by left-clicking dynamicConstraint1 in the Outliner.
4 In the Quality Settings section, set Max Self Collide Iterations to 20 and
turn on Self Trapped Check.
The Max Self Collision Iterations value specifies the maximum number
of self-collision related nCloth calculations performed per substep.
Increasing this value allows Maya to recognize more self-collisions and
thus simulate more realistic cloth, but at the cost of slower speed.
You may increase the values in the above steps to further improve the
simulation. However, keep in mind that caching the animation becomes
progressively slower as these values increase.
1 Select the dress and in the Polygons menu set select Mesh > Smooth.
For more information and related techniques about nCloth, refer to the Maya
Help.
nParticles is a particle generation system that uses Maya® NucleusTM, the same
dynamic simulation framework that generates nCloth simulations. An nParticle
object natively collides and interacts with other nParticle objects, as well as
with nCloth and passive collision objects. nParticles can also self-collide,
meaning that particles from the same nParticle object can collide with each
other.
915
Nucleus dynamics allows you to create particle effects and dynamic simulations
that cannot be achieved with Maya classic particles. For example, you can use
Liquid Simulation attributes to create particle systems that behave like liquids.
You can also create effects in which particles interact and drive nCloth
animations and deformations.
This chapter includes these tutorials:
2 If you have not already done so, copy the GettingStarted folder from
its installation location to your projects directory. Then, set the
GettingStarted directory as your Maya project. For more information,
see Copying and setting the Maya project on page 25 in the Getting
Started with Maya guide.
3 Select the nDynamics menu set. Unless otherwise noted, the directions
in this chapter for making menu selections assume you’ve already selected
the nDynamics menu set.
Introduction
This scene includes textured polygon models including a desk, bowl, and
candy package.
3 In the Emitter Options (Emit from Object) window, select Edit > Reset
Settings.
9 Click Create.
10 From the perspective window menu, select Shading > Smooth Shade All.
2 In the scene view, Shift-select the package and bowl meshes as well as
the surface of the desk.
2 Click the far left circle marker (at Selected Position 0) of the ramp.
5 Click the far right square marker of the ramp to delete it.
For this simulation, the color of the nParticles will not change so you
only need one ramp marker.
8 Right-click Rate (Particles/Second) and select Set Key from the context
menu.
A key is created with the nParticle emission rate set at 0.
9 Go back to the beginning of the playback range and play the simulation.
nParticles are now emitted until frame 55.
■ Friction: 0.2
■ Stickiness: 0.5
5 Notice that the nParticles are now sticking each other and piling up at
the edge of the bowl.
Friction and Stickiness are similar attributes in that Friction is a force
acting in the tangent direction, while Stickiness is an adhesion force in
the normal direction. When Nucleus objects collide, the affect of their
Friction and Stickiness values are additive. For example, if the Stickiness
value of the nParticles and the bowl are 0.5, the overall Stickiness acting
on both objects is equal to 1.0.
7 Click the nRigid_BowlShape tab, then in the Collisions section, set Friction
to 0.2 and Stickiness to 0.5.
1 In the Collisions section of the nParticle Attribute Editor, turn off Self
Collide.
3 Turn on Self Collide, and set Self Collide Width Scale to 1.5.
6 Set Self Collide Width Scale back to 1.0, and the Solver Display to Off.
For more information and related techniques about nParticles, refer to the
Maya Help.
Introduction
For the smoke simulation in this lesson, you create an nParticle system
composed of an nParticle object, an emitter object, and a nucleus node. You
will add a Volume Axis field to your effect to create turbulence and swirling
in the nParticle smoke. This field helps create the realistic behavior of smoke
as it cools, rises and dissipates. To finish your smoke simulation, you will also
add a Nucleus Wind force to make the smoke drift as it disappears.
Lesson setup
To ensure this lesson works as described, open the scene file named
Smoke_Simulation_1.mb. This file is in the GettingStarted directory that you
set as your Maya project:
GettingStarted/nParticles/Smoke_Simulation_1.mb
3 In the Emitter Options (Create) window, select Edit > Reset Settings.
8 Click Create.
An Emitter_Smoke1, nParticleShape1, and a nucleus1 node appear in the
Attribute Editor.
■ Translate Y: 121
■ Translate Z: -27.3
4 In the scene view, dolly and tumble so that you get a close-up view of
the cigarette.
The nParticle emitter is now positioned near the tip of the cigarette.
12 In the Gravity and Wind section, change the Gravity Direction for Y from
-1.0 to 1.0.
3 In the Lifespan section, select Random range from the Lifespan Mode
list.
2 In the Radius Scale section, select the first marker in the ramp, set Selected
Position to 0.016, and set Selected Value to 0.04.
Creating a new marker allows you to set two Selected Value and Selected
Position values. Each Selected Value specifies a scaling value for the
nParticle object's Radius attribute. By default, ramps define a scaling value
of 1, meaning that only one mark exists on the ramp and that marker
3 Click in the ramp to create additional markers and set the Selected
Position and Selected Value for the new markers to the following values:
Marker Selected Posi- Selected
tion Value
2 0.732 0.180
3 0.882 0.480
4 1.0 1.0
For each point in the ramp, leave Interpolation at its default setting of
Linear.
4 To map nParticle Radius to the nParticles’ age, set Radius Scale Input to
Normalized Age.
When Normalized Age is used, per-particle radius is mapped within the
range of the nParticle object’s lifespan.
2 In the Volume Axis Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings.
■ Attenuation: 2.0
■ Turbulence: 0.661
5 Click Create.
A Field_Smoke1 node appears in the Attribute Editor and in the Outliner.
1 In the Outliner, select Field_Smoke1 and open the Channel Box by clicking
■ TranslateY: 133.8
■ TranslateZ: -26.49
■ ScaleX: 10
■ ScaleY: 10
■ ScaleZ: 10
The nParticles now rise through the field and behaving more like smoke.
In the next section, you use the nParticle Shading attributes to make the
nParticle object look more like cigarette smoke.
1 To make it easier to see the changes you make to the nParticle object’s
Shading attributes, you can hide the Volume Axis field shape by selecting
Field_Smoke1 in the Outliner then selecting Display > Hide > Hide
Selection.
The Volume Axis field still affects your nParticles, but you no longer see
the volume shape in the scene view.
6 In the Opacity Scale section, click in the ramp to create additional markers
then set an Opacity ramp by setting the following marker settings:
Marker Selected Posi- Selected Interpolation
tion Value
9 To set the color of the nParticles when they are first emitted, click the
far left circle marker of the ramp (at Selected Position 0) then click the
color swatch beside Selected Color.
The Color Chooser appears.
11 In the Color Chooser, select white and add a little grey, or type the
following color values into the HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value) fields:
■ H:210
■ S: 0
■ V: 0.95
12 To set the color of the nParticles as they continue to age, click inside the
ramp to create a marker, set the Selected Position to 0.834, then click the
color swatch beside Selected Color.
13 In the Color Chooser, select a shade of grey that is slightly darker than
the color you selected for the first marker, or type the following color
values into the HSV (Hue-Saturation-Value) fields:
■ H:210
■ S: 0
■ V: 0.85
■ S: 0.084
■ V: 0.85
16 To improve the way the nParticles colors blend as they age, do the
following:
■ Set Interpolation to Smooth for each marker.
When you play back the simulation, the nParticles look more like cigarette
smoke.
Adding more volume to the smoke would further improve the simulation.
Instead of reducing the nParticle Opacity values, you can emit more
particles and increase the nParticle Radius to create more smoke volume.
NOTE If you had other Nucleus objects (nCloth objects or other nParticle objects)
assigned to the same Nucleus solver, they would also be affected by the force of
the wind.
3 Click in the Axial Magnitude ramp to create two new markers, and create
a ramp by setting the following:
Marker Selected Position Selected Interpolation
Value
1 Play the simulation and stop the playback at or around frame 300.
■ Use the Radius Scale ramp to map per-particle radius to nParticle age.
■ Use the Opacity and Color attributes to define the color and thickness of
the smoke.
You can further optimize the color and thickness of the smoke by
continuing to adjust the Opacity Scale and Color ramps.
■ Add Nucleus Wind to your nParticle effect. You can experiment with the
Nucleus solver’s Wind Speed, Wind Density, and Wind Direction attributes
to change the direction of the rising smoke.
For more information and related techniques about nParticles and Maya Fields,
refer to the Maya Help.
Introduction
■ Render a single frame of your nParticle simulation using mental ray for
Maya renderer.
Lesson setup
To ensure this lesson works as described, open the scene file named
Liquid_Simulation_1.mb. This file is in the GettingStarted directory that
you set as your Maya project:
GettingStarted/nParticles/Liquid_Simulation_1.mb
This scene includes textured polygon models including a desk, water pitcher,
and water glass. The water pitcher mesh is animated to lift off the desk, tip to
pour water into the glass, then set back down on the desktop.
In this lesson, both the pitcher and the glass mesh will hold nParticles,
so you must convert meshes to passive collision objects and assign them
to the same Nucleus system as the nParticles.
5 Rename the pitcher and glass nRigid objects in the Outliner. For example,
rename nRigid1 and nRigid2as nRigid_Pitcher and nRigid_Glass respectively.
When you reduce the Space Scale value, Maya evaluates the nParticle
system as if the particles are much smaller in size. This results in a visibly
increased gravitational effect on the nParticles.
For this liquid simulation, you want the nParticles to fill one-third of the
pitcher. You can add more volume to the nParticles by adjusting the
Nucleus solver Substeps and Max Collision Iterations.
For liquid simulations, set Collide Width Scale to a value that is one-third
the nParticle object Radius value.
6 In the scene view, dolly and tumble so that you get a close-up view of
the nParticles at the bottom of the pitcher.
The nParticles occupy the pitcher in two distinct layers one on top of the
other. In the bottom layer, the nParticles are evenly spaced and level,
while in the upper layer, there are gaps between particles. Since the top
layer of nParticles represent the surface of the liquid, the gaps between
particles create a surface that is uneven and unlike the surface of water.
■ Viscosity: 0.1
You can experiment with Rest Density by setting it to 0.5 and then to 4.0.
Play back your simulation with each new setting to observe how the values
affect your nParticles. Set Viscosity to 10, play back the simulation, and observe
how long it takes for the nParticles to move from the pitcher to the glass.
Ensure you set Viscosity and Rest Density to their default values before
continuing the tutorial.
1 Play the simulation and stop the playback at or around frame 30.
In the scene view, the nParticle output mesh is superimposed over your
nParticle object.
6 In the Output Mesh section, select Quads from the Mesh Method list.
Selecting Quads creates your converted mesh using quad-based polygons,
while Tetrahedra, Cubes, and AcuteTetrahedra create meshes using
triangulated polygons. Output meshes that are quad-based respond better
to polygon smoothing (Mesh > Smooth) than triangle-based output
meshes.
7 Dolly and tumble the scene so that you can closely observe the nParticle
output mesh, and experiment with the following Threshold values:
■ Set Threshold to 0.2.
At this value, the nParticle output mesh extends beyond the nParticle
object’s collision width and penetrates the inner wall of the pitcher
mesh.
■ Click Create.
Maya plays the scene automatically and stores the frames in the directory
you specified.
In the next section of this lesson, you use the nParticle cache to help optimize
specific areas of the simulation.
1 Go to frame 119, then dolly and tumble the scene so that you have a
close-up view of the water nParticles pouring into the glass.
To make the mesh a continuous flowing object, you can adjust the Motion
Streak attribute.
Preparing to render
To prepare your scene and workspace for rendering, you will do the following:
■ Cache your simulation so that you can play it or scrub through it to locate
the simulated frame you want to render.
■ Show hidden light objects and the camera you use to render a simulated
frame.
■ Click Create.
5 In the Outliner, Ctrl-click the main, rim, and fill lights, then select Display
> Show >Show Selection.
The lights used for rendering the simulation appear in the scene.
1 In the Hypershade, on the Create tab, click Create Maya Nodes and select
Create mental ray Nodes from the drop-down list.
The Hypershade now shows the list of mental ray shader nodes.
5 Click and hold the Presets button, select GlassThin, then Replace
(GlassThin > Replace).
7 In the Color Chooser, type the following color values into the RGB fields:
■ R: 0.190
■ G: 0.574
■ B: 0.190
8 Click Accept.
10 To assign the material to the pitcher, in the Work Area tab of the
Hypershade, right-click mia_material_glass then select Assign Material To
Selection from the marking menu.
In the scene view, the pitcher turns black. You can only see the true color
and texture of the material after the frame is rendered using mental ray
for Maya.
1 Go to frame 119.
.
The Render Settings window appears.
■ In the Image Size section, select 320×240 from the Presets list.
■ Set Shadows to 4.
6 Click the Indirect Lighting tab, and in the Caustics section, turn on
Caustics.
8 To render the current frame, in the Render View, select Render > Render
> Current (renderCam).
The current frame appears as a rendered image in the Render View.
2 Click the Common tab and in the Image Size section, select 640×480
from the Presets list.
3 From the Rendering menu set, select Render > Render Current Frame.
■ Adjust the Nucleus solver’s Space Scale attribute to suit the scale of your
simulation.
■ Optimize the appearance of your nParticle output mesh using Output Mesh
attributes such as Threshold, Mesh Smooth Iterations, and Motion Streak.
■ Render a single frame of your nParticle simulation using the mental ray
for Maya renderer.
About Live
Imagine that you must replace the contents of a live-action shot of a fence with
a fence modeled in Maya. In the live-action shot, the camera sweeps around
the fence. You can use Live to animate a Maya camera that sweeps around your
modeled fence in the same way. When you render the Maya fence from this
camera, it will have the same camera perspective as the live-action fence. You
can therefore composite them together precisely.
979
Live can also match the movement of objects in the live-action shot. Suppose
you want to replace the hat of a moving, live-action person with a cartoon
hat created in Maya. You can use Live to create 3D locators that follow the
movement of certain points on the live-action hat. You then attach a hat
created in Maya to these moving points, so that the rendered Maya hat follows
the movements of the live-action person. The steps for matching object
movement are about the same as matching the camera.
To use Live, you do the following major tasks in order:
Setting up
You begin by loading digital images of the live-action shot. In this lesson,
you’ll use images scanned from film footage.
Images appear on an image plane. This plane is part of the Maya camera. It
displays images as part of a background.
Solve
In this task, you run a solver program that computes an animated camera,
based on the movement of the track points.
Fine Tune
This is an optional task where you can make frame-by-frame adjustments to
the camera position. (This task is rarely used and is not covered by this lesson.)
1 Make sure you understand the basic usage of the animation playback
controls. See the chapter entitled “Animation” in Getting Started with Maya
to learn about these controls.
4 If Live doesn’t appear in the menu set selection menu, select Window >
Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager. In the Plug-in Manager, locate
mayaLive.mll (Windows) and click the loaded checkbox. Wait about 20
seconds for the operation to finish, then close the Plug-in Manager.
5 Select the Live menu set. All instructions in this lesson assume you have
the Live menu set selected.
Also notice Live creates a camera and an image plane in your scene. This is
the camera Live animates. The image plane serves as the background plate
when you look through the camera. It is where the images for the live shot
will appear once you’ve loaded them.
1 If you haven’t already done so, download and extract the Maya Live
Lesson Data at http://www.autodesk.com/maya-training in the Tutorials
section.
2 In the Setup control panel, click the Browse button next to the Full Res
Image box.
4 Click the Open button. Live loads the entire image sequence, from
shot1BG.rgb.0001 to shot1BG.rgb.0240.
5 From the Predefined Filmbacks list (on the Setup control panel), choose
35mm Full Aperture.
Filmback is the aspect ratio (width/height) of the exposed film negative
used during filming. Before using Live, you need to find out which
filmback was used during filming. Without it, Live cannot determine the
correct angle of view (camera aperture) and focal length.
NOTE If the images do not appear on the image plane, you may need to
adjust the image cache settings. Click the Cache option on the far left to
display the cache settings. Set Texture Method to Image. If the images still
do not appear, try selecting None.
Introduction
This lesson guides you through the main tasks in Live: tracking and solving.
In this lesson you learn how to:
■ Evaluate how closely points are tracked using the Track Summary panel.
Tracking provides Live with information about the way objects in the shot
appear to move. Just as objects move in your field of view when you walk by
them, the way objects move in the camera view gives Live information on
how the camera moved during filming.
You’ll track points for various spots, such as a mark on the fence. To track a
point, you mark each spot in the image and have Live run a tracker that
automatically follows the point’s movement from frame to frame. The result
is called a track point.
Later, in the solve task, Live will animate a Maya camera based on the track
point movement.
Tracking preparation
Which spots should you track? To answer this question, do these steps:
1 Open the Track control panel by clicking the menu on the far left of the
control panel and choosing Track.
Above the Track control panel, Live displays preset view panels. The view
panels match the needs of tracking. The following illustration labels these
panels, shown the way they might look at the end of the lesson.
NOTE Playing shots can be slow because the images require a lot of memory.
To speed up playback, Live has settings for creating an image cache (Setup
Cache control panel). Image cache is an allocation of system memory
dedicated to storage and retrieval of images so that they play back faster. For
this lesson, the default image cache settings usually suffice. If you later find
that caching the images appears too slow you can change the Pixel Type
from the default RGB setting to Luminance. This will cache black and white
versions of the images thereby reducing the amount of data cached and
increasing the performance of tracking points in Live.
1 Go to frame 1.
2 Click the Create button in the Track control panel. Live places a track
box in the center of the shotCamera view, ready for you to reposition.
If you don’t see a full-color image of the scene in the view, go one frame
forward in the Time Slider and go back to the start time to refresh the
view.
3 Before you reposition the track box, enter flower1 in the Name box in
the Track control panel. We recommend you name track points for future
reference.
4 In the Track control panel, click the track box tool so you can reposition
the track box.
5 In the shotCamera1 view, drag the track box down to the fourth clump
of flowers from the right.
6 In the pointCenteredCamera view, drag the image until the track box
cross-hair is centered over the flower closest to the fence. Dragging in
this panel has the opposite effect from the shotCamera view, because
you are actually panning the camera, not moving the track box.
1 Review the movie file that Live generates at the end of tracking.
Identify any areas where the cross-hair slips noticeably from the original
position on the flower. This takes some judgment. Since the flower
changes shape over time, you must visualize where the original point
would be as the camera perspective changes.
If the cross-hair appears to stay within two pixels of the original target
point, you have tracked the flower successfully. If the cross-hair moves
completely off the flower or the tracking stops before it reaches the last
frame, you must track again. Delete the track point (click Delete in the
Track control panel), return to frame 1, position the track box cross hair
exactly in the center of the flower closest to the fence, and click Start
Track.
As illustrated, the green region drops over time, leaving the graph mostly
yellow toward the end. This is a normal occurrence, caused by the
changing pixel pattern of the point you tracked. In this case, you can
ignore the yellow color, because the main evaluation tool—the movie
file—indicates the track is on target.
NOTE The curved blue (or red) line next to the track point is a trace line. It
is an optional tracking feature you will not use in this lesson.
1 Go to frame 1.
2 Click Create and drag the track box over the bottom corner of the far
right fence post. If you have trouble dragging the track box, click the
track box tool again:
Knowing where to position the track box involves two important factors.
One factor is the pattern framed by the inner target box. This pattern
must have at least some contrast and must be distinct from the
surrounding region that is framed by the outer box. By having a distinct
pattern within the inner target, you will prevent the tracker from jumping
off target and onto a similar pattern.
Another important factor is choosing where you place the cross-hair. You
want it to be over a spot that you can recognize in later frames when the
pattern changes. By aligning the vertical cross-hair line with the post
edge and the horizontal cross-hair line with the bottom of the post, you
can identify this same spot in later frames.
1 To see fenceCorner’s tracking graph better, click the Track Summary panel
and tap the space bar.
2 You need to select and remove the tracking data after frame 52—the last
frame still on track. To identify this frame in the graph, move to frame
52 in the Time Slider. In the Track Summary panel, a black bar shows the
location of frame 52.
3 In the Track Summary panel, draw a selection box from right to left
around the end of fenceCorner’s graph. Do not select beyond the black
bar that indicates frame 52. Also, be careful to select only the frames for
fenceCorner, not flower1.
4 In the Track Summary panel, choose Edit > Delete Region. Live removes
the bad tracking data from fenceCorner.
Deleting regions where the track is off target is crucial to successfully
solving your shots. Whenever you find difficulty tracking a point for a
specific segment of frames, consider deleting the tracking data.
1 Move to frame 143, where the fence corner reappears in view. In the
following steps, you will continue to track from this frame to the end of
the shot.
You’ll skip tracking a large amount of frames for the fenceCorner point
(the ones in the middle of the graph), which is common practice when
3 Shorten the track box’s inner target box by clicking the inner target box’s
bottom edge and dragging up as shown below. The tracker will not work
if the target area extends beyond the image.
4 In the Track control panel, click Start Track. If the tracker successfully
tracks to the last frame, you’ll see a graph similar to the following
If the tracker fails to create a graph similar to the above illustration, three
actions might have occurred:
■ The tracker stays stuck at the same frame and the animation frame doesn’t
advance
1 Choose Track > Import Track Points from the Live menu set.
Preparing to solve
Are there enough track points for you to solve the camera movement? Follow
these instructions to see how you make this decision.
2 For each frame, make sure there are at least four points with graphed
tracked data. Experience has shown that four points is the minimum
average you need to solve a shot.
In the middle frames, such as frame 135, there is less track data. However,
on this frame and all frames in the middle, there are at least four.
4 As a preventive measure, look for blue tick marks in the graphs for flower1
and fenceCorner—the track points you created.
A blue tick mark indicates you moved the track box for that frame. You
may have moved it accidentally—for example, if you clicked on the track
box to select it. Click on the blue tick mark to go to that frame. Then, in
the pointCenteredCamera view, compare the frames next to this frame.
A shift as small as one pixel can cause problems when you solve.
If you see a sudden shift between the frames, go to that region in the
Track Summary graph, select two or three frames (you can simply
estimate), and choose Edit > Delete Region.
5 Look at the Ready to Solve bar at the bottom of the Track Summary.
It’s mostly green and yellow, with little red. The red area is mostly in the
middle because there is less track data there. However, since you meet
the minimum number of points, it’s worth trying to solve. You can always
add more track points later.
1 Open the Solve control panel by clicking the control panel menu on the
far left and choosing Solve.
The Solve control panel has a different arrangement of view panels than
the ones you used for tracking. You will learn about these other panels
as you continue with the lesson.
2 In the Solve control panel, click the Solve button to begin the solve
process. This process will take several minutes to complete. (You do not
need to go to frame 1 when you solve; Live solves for all frames by
default.)
Notice the column of buttons next to the Solve button, with Start at the
top and Register at the bottom. These buttons run the solver in stages—the
same stages that it performs when you click Solve. Running the solver in
stages is only for advanced use; you can ignore these buttons for now.
2 Play the animation and tumble the perspective view while the animation
plays so you can see how the camera moves.
You need to judge whether the camera moves the way you expect. You
know the camera starts above the set and moves down, so it should start
above the locators and sweep down in the same way. Compare the frames
in the following illustration.
In this case, the camera starts below the locators and moves up instead
of down. It also makes a series of abrupt movements. This solution is
incorrect.
4 For further evaluation, examine the graphs in the panel on the lower left.
This is the Locator Summary.
The Locator Summary graphs the pixel slip of each point over time. You
already looked at the overall pixel slip, but the Locator Summary lets you
find which point has the most pixel slip and on which frames.
NOTE The other panels in the layout are the Graph Editor and the
shotCamera. The Graph Editor is for advanced users. It can be helpful for
examining the camera animation curves so that you can pinpoint problem
areas. The shotCamera panel is useful in later stages, after you have a correct
solution. You can ignore both of these panels for now.
3 Click Solve.
In general, having a diversity of points, such as points far and near the
camera, is critical to helping the solver.
4 When the solver finishes, solution_rf1 appears in the solution list. Check
the Overall Pixel Slip in the Solve control panel. It reads about 0.322, so
the new points have made an improvement.
If you have a larger Overall Pixel Slip, the problem may be that initial1
was selected when you solved again. Try selecting solution_rf instead and
clicking Solve again. The solution you have selected when you click Solve
can affect the outcome of the solver.
6 If you plan to continue with the next lesson, we recommend you first
save your scene into the current scenes directory.
■ Evaluate how closely points are tracked using the Track Summary panel.
Introduction
This optional lesson is a continuation of the previous lesson.
The objective in this shot is to replace the filmed fence with a fence modeled
in Maya. Suppose you had taken measurements of the fence from the film set
and used the measurements to model a fence in Maya. The locators created
by Live would not match the same scale that you used for the model. Also,
the locators and camera Live created are not near the perspective view grid,
which is a convenient reference for modeling and animating.
To solve these issues, you can incorporate the measurements you surveyed
from the set into the Live solver. You do this with the survey constraints
feature.
Even if you do not have survey measurements, you can use estimates to change
the spacing between locators and their orientation within the Maya scene.
2 In the Solve control panel, click the Survey option to open the survey
constraint settings.
4 To help select the points, open the Outliner (Window > Outliner).
■ tileInFront
A convenient way to bring points onto the grid is to use a Plane constraint,
which aligns locators onto a plane.
■ fenceCorner
■ flower2
■ tileInFront
3 Click Create. Live places the Plane constraint on the perspective view
grid by default.
Registering a solution
To incorporate your survey constraints, you could solve from scratch (click
Solve). However, you do not need to. You already have an accurate solution;
you only want to incorporate the survey constraints.
For this reason, Live lets you run the last step of solving: Register. In this step,
the solver applies survey constraints to the solution as a whole without
changing the relative positions of locators and the camera.
■ fenceX4
■ fenceX1
■ fenceRailSpot
■ fencePostEdge
■ fenceleft1
■ fenceleft2
These are the points that are on the front of the fence.
4 Click Create.
6 In the Channel Box, rotate the fence plane by entering 90 in the Rotate
X attribute. Because the real fence is at a 90 degree angle to the backyard
ground, you must rotate the fence constraint the same way in Maya.
In this case, only the plane’s rotation matters, not where you move it.
No matter where you move the fence Plane constraint, the fence points
will remain on the grid because the solver must obey the ground
constraint you created.
The scale of the Plane constraint never matters because the solver treats
it as infinitely large.
7 Switch to the Solve control panel, select registered from the solution list,
and click the Register button. The solver creates registered1 with the fence
points aligned with the XY plane.
5 Switch to the Solve control panel, select registered1 from the solution
list, and click the Register button. The solver creates registered2 with
fenceCorner at the origin.
You will now import a fence that has been modeled to exactly match the fence
that was filmed.
1 Hide the Plane constraints by selecting them and choosing Display >
Hide, Show > Hide Selection By hiding them, you can see the fence better.
2 Enlarge the shotCamera view panel, which is in the upper right of the
Solve panel layout. This panel shows the view from the solved Maya
camera.
In frame 1, you can see that the modeled fence accurately matches the
fence that was filmed. To quickly see if it matches well in the other frames,
you can scrub through the shot in the Time Slider.
3 To scrub through the shot, drag slowly from left to right in the Time
Slider.
The fence model does not appear to slip in relation to the background,
so this confirms that the solution is accurate. If you rendered a sequence
of the camera moving around the modeled fence, you could composite
the sequence with the original background and they would exactly match.
Although scrubbing tends to skip frames, it gives a preliminary
confirmation that the fence model matches the background in all frames.
1011 | Index
Billow Density 805 camera
birth, particles 549 applications 496
blend modes 611 create 496
blend shape deformer 352 Camera Attribute Editor 452
adding shape to 357 camera constraints 1010
editor 353 camera tools
improving deformations 359 Dolly Tool 44
blending animation types 231 overview 43
Blinn shading material 441, 443 Track Tool 45
description 67 Tumble Tool 45
Blobby Radius Scale, nParticles 965 cameras
Blur, 3D Paint 617 animating 498, 500
boat locator 825 Film Gate 500
boat wakes 827 undoing changes 498
bones 319 Canvas
Boolean operations 129 Clear 568
border edges 84 Set Size 568
Bounce 925–926 Canvas Clear 566
Boundary Draw 808 Caustic Photons 532
Boundary X, Y 796 Caustics
Bounding Box 214 Caustic Photons 527
braces, in statements 641 description 519
brackets, double angle 646 Emit Photons 527
Break Tangents light sources 533
Graph Editor 208 Photon Intensity 527
Bridge 102 photon maps 526
Browse button 614, 620 photons 526
brush profile 615 Channel Box 24
brushes blend attributes 233, 235
3D Paint, Paint Effects 615 description 37
description 577 hiding, showing 24
Kelp 594 locking channels 298
Mesh 598 naming and renaming objects 38
Teapot 599 transforming and rotating
Thin Line 608 objects 38
bump, painting 618 translation, rotation, scaling 24
Buoyancy 826 character set 246
character setup
description 317
C Circle 172
cache clear canvas 566
for Live images 985, 1010 clip cycle
caching description 261
nCloth 898–899 clip library 270
nParticles 967 clip manipulator 258
caching fluids 800
1012 | Index
clips giving object constant color 645
applications 242 giving particles randomly changing
audio 275 color 646
blending 274 particles 548
components 245 ramp 549
creating 244, 247 Color 611
cycling 261 color bleeding 515
description 239, 242 Color Chooser 68, 454
duration 246 Color Feedback
importing 253 Paint Fur Attributes Tool 846
inserting 270 Color Input 804, 817
keyframing 275 Color Method 797
name 246 Combine 102
Outliner 275 components
regular clips 244 description 62
renaming 248 conditional statements
repositioning 250 if 636
reusing 253 Conserve attribute 545
scale 246 constraints 554, 880–892
scaling 257 description 291
source 244, 253 nCloth 881, 886, 908–909
Visor 275 orient 296
cloth texture 446–447 parent 305
Clump Width point 294
hair 772 Point to Surface 881
cluster deformer 346 rigid bodies 554
cluster handle 348 construction history 117, 153, 179
cluster weights 349 container
Collapse 294 boundaries 796
collapse hierarchy 294 creating 792, 801, 810
Collide Sphere 768 resolution 802
Collide Width Scale 926, 928, 960 size 802
Collision Flag 876–878 Contents Method
collision object dynamic fluid 795
fluid 798 Dynamic Grid 794, 797, 812, 816
collisions Gradient 803
nCloth 868–878, 899–900 control object (IK) 290
nParticles 925–926, 960 control vertices (CVs) 152
collisions, rigid bodies 554 description 63
color Convert Selection
Christmas light effect with hair 768
particles 648 converting a UV selection 384
emitting 797 Crease Proxy Edge Tool 127
fluid property 792 creasing
fluid shader 817 subdivision surface 195
fur 850
Index | 1013
Create D
Expression Editor 628
Create 2D Container 792 deforming objects with fluids 800
Create 2D Container with Emitter 793 Delete by Type 118
Create 3D Container 802, 810 Delete Keys 332
Create Blend Shape 352 Delete Region 992
Create Clip Density
options 261–262 description 793
Create Cluster 348 emitting 792
Create Constraint 556 fluid property 792
hair 768, 785 fur setting 853
Create Hair 758, 779 painting 811
Create Ocean 820 Depth Map Shadows 774, 859
Create Polygon Tool 95 Depth Max 805
Create Ramp 549 detail
Create Rest Curves subdivision surface 191
hair 759 Dim Image 377
creating directional light
constraints 881–886, 908–909 create 486
liquid simulations 953, 976 description 486
nCloth 866–868, 895 editing attributes 487
nParticles 918, 920, 931, 933 displacement
passive collision objects 868, 897 ocean 821
creation expressions 645 Displacements
assigning to rgbPP 645 hair 773
cross-hair in track box 988 display
cube primitive 21, 78 creased edges 128
options 46 only selected object 355
Curl Poly Count 129
hair 773 soft and hard edges 124
Curl Frequency template 60
hair 773 Display Image 379, 384
Current Position 759 Display Level 192
curve Display Quality
direction 152 hair 760–761
edit revolved 153 Display Resolution 452
start 152 Display Start Position
curves, dynamic 753 hair 762
curves, hair 756 Display Unfiltered 387
cutting Distance survey constraint 1003
subdivision surface 190 Dmap Focus 859
CV Curve Tool 151 Dolly Tool 44
cycling a clip 261 description 44
double angle brackets 646
Draft rendering setting
description 505
1014 | Index
driven keys Emit Fluid Color 798
description 215 Emit from Object 538
duplicate emitter, nParticles 918, 931
symmetrical 831 emitters 536
Duplicate Tool 174 creating 537
description 39, 55 Omni 538
options 39, 48 emitting
Duration 246 color 797
dynamic attributes Density 792
adding 546, 644 fluid 792
dynamic curves 777 fluid from surface 800
hair 753 End Bounds 582
dynamic fluid End Time 202
behavior, changing 794 equal to (==) operator 648
Contents Method 795 Equalize
creating (3D) 810 hair 759
description 791 errors
Dynamic Grid 794, 797, 812, 816 syntax 637
Dynamic Properties 892, 895 Essential Skills Movies 5
dynamics closing the movie window 6
definition 535 playing 6
exiting Maya 27
Expression Editor 627
E expressions 825
Eccentricity 824 advantage of separate 632
Edge Bounded advantage of single 632
hair 759 creating 628
edge loop 84 description 625
description 84 editing 630
termination 115 execution details 633
edges naming conventions 627
border 84 Extrude 97
creasing 123 extrusion manipulator
hardening 123 subdivision surfaces 189
selecting subdivision surface 193
Edit button F
expressions 631
Edit Deformers > Blend Shape > Add 357 face selection mode 82
Edit Ramp 553 faces
elbow splitting 107
influence object 341 facial animation 344
electronic tablet FCheck 462, 553
sculpting surfaces 164 feedback
else keyword fur 838
expressions 640 fields 536, 553
emission rate 924 file saving 27
Index | 1015
Fill Object, nParticles 954 Fuel
filmback for Live 983 painting 811
fingernails 193 Full Crease Edge/Vertex 195
fingers 185 Full Res Image 983
Flipbooks 553 fur
floating geometry 825 Attribute Editor 849
Flood 815, 847 attributes 838
Sculpt Geometry Tool 161 base width 853
Flood All 613 color modification 850
fluid container Density 853
boundaries 793 description 836
creating 792, 801, 810 direction 840
fluid dynamics 791 Direction Offset 841
fluid properties 792 feedback 838
adding constant values 803 Inclination 853
emitting 792 Length 853
painting 811 Paint Attributes Tool 843
Fluid Slice Location 813 Polar 841
fluids presets 830
attributes, changing 794 reduce length 843
color 797 Roll 841
deforming geometry with 800 Scraggle 853
emitting 792 tip width 853
emitting from surface 800
forces 793
painting properties 811 G
resolution 802 Get Brush icon 615
self-shadowing 808 Get Fluid Example 809
shader attributes 803 Getting Started with Maya
texturing 804 about the lessons 2
follicle before you begin 3
attributes 772 introduction 1
hair 754 lesson conventions 4
forces using lesson files 5
container boundaries 793 using tutorials online 3
Gravity 795 Global Illum Photons 509, 514
Forward Kinematics (FK) 276, 328, 332 Global Illumination
Four Panes 151 Accuracy 513
Frame In 245 color bleeding 515
Frame Out 245 description 501
Frame Selection light sources 517
Graph Editor 206 photon maps 508
frames per second setting 440 photons 508
Freeze Transformations Radius 513
description 292 rendering process 508, 510
Friction 925–926 Glue Strength 785
1016 | Index
Go to Bind Pose 340 Hardware renderer
Graph Editor 205 description 451
path animation 227 Help
Set Driven Key 219 Find Menu 10
tangent modification 228 launching 7
Gravity 557, 584, 795, 892 Help resources 5
hair 761, 766 hide layers 844
Gravity and Wind 949 Hide Selection 179
ground plane 579 hierarchy
group nodes about 278
animating 214 collapse 294, 304
Group Under 345 description 52
grouping objects grouping 52
description 52 skeleton 319
Growth attributes 605 viewing in hypergraph 279
Hinge constraint 556
hole
H creating subdivision surface 190
hair Hotkeys
assigning a Paint Effects brush 782 brush scale 594
colliding with objects 782 description 55
constraining 784 setting 55
creating 758 Hypergraph 53
creating Rest curves 765 character setup 321
improving playback description 53
performance 761 overview 53
modifying 772 viewing 53
Paint Hair Tool 754 viewing hierarchies 53
playing the hair simulation 760 Hypershade
rendering 771, 786 Create Textures 477
setting up collisions 767 description 474
shadowing 774 rename operation 477
styling 762
Hair Color 783 I
hair curves 756
hair system 754 if statements
attributes 772 expressions 634
Hair to Hair constraint 784–785 if-else statements
Hair Width 773 expressions 639–640
hairConstraintShape 785 Ignore Solver Gravity 934
Hairs Per Clump 772 IK handles 328
hairSystemShape 761 control object 290
Harden Edge 125 creating 288
hardware render 551 creating and animating 329
Hardware Render Buffer 551 description 288
parenting 300
Index | 1017
IK Rotate Plane handle 331 Joint Tool 320
IK Solvers joints 319
Enable and Disable 340 influence on skin 335
ikSCsolver 289 moving 324
image cache in Live 985, 1010
image plane
description 75 K
importing 76 Keep Aspect Ratio 610
transparency 77 Keep Hard Edge 126
image plane and rendering 1002 Keep Image 507, 525
image size 505, 515, 524 keyframes (keys)
Import Clip 253 adding 212
Import Tracked Points 994, 999 deleting 211
Incandescence 818 description 200
Incandescence1 617 setting 202
Inclination 841, 853 keying into a clip 275
Incompressibility 961 keys
Influence list delete redundant 212
Paint Skin Weights Tool 337 Key Selected 314
influence object moving 207
smooth skin 340 setting 311
initial orientation
hinge constraint 557
Initial State 905–907 L
Input Mesh Attract 902
Insert Edge Loop Tool 103, 111 Lambert shading material 441–442
Insert Isoparms 168 Layer Editor 834
Inverse Kinematics (IK) layers
description 276, 328 assign objects to 836
limiting motion 298 create 835
translation limits 304 description 834
IPR 619 editor 834
description 451 hide 844
region to be updated 454 reference 835, 851
IPR Render Current Frame 453 settings 851
Isolate Select 355 template 851
isoparms 157 layouts
Iterations changing panel layout 32
hair 766 four view layout 39
shortcuts 32
Leaf Width Scale attributes 604
J Leaves attributes 605
legs
jaw joint chains 319
joint 322 Length
joint chains 319 hair 759
Joint Size 320
1018 | Index
Length Flex Make Collide 799
hair 766 hair 782
level of detail Make Motor Boats 827
subdivision surface 191 Make Paintable 594
lifespan attribute 549 manipulators, subvolume 811
Lifespan, nParticles 935 Map Visualizer 517, 533
lights mapping UVs 375
add to a scene 856 applications 375
applications 485 marking menu 63
attributes 491 masks and modes, selection
directional 586 description 56
dropoff 492 Mass 892
intensity 586 match moving 979
penumbra 492 material
spotlight 488, 506 assigning 467
spotlights 856 Blinn 441
Line Smoothing 552 default shading 67
Line Width 547 description 441, 467
Linear Lambert 441
Graph Editor tangents 208 surface 67
linking attributes 631 Max Displacement 162
Liquid Radius Scale 959 Max Influences 335
Liquid Simulation attributes 958, 963 Max Photon Depth 529
Live Max Self Collide Iterations 910–911
control panels 982 Maya
solver 997 about 1
starting 982 installing 3
Load Driver launching 15
Set Driven Key 217 user interface 15–16
Load Selected Characters 245 using Maya Help 7
loading Maya Hardware renderer
Live 982 description 451
Locator Summary 998 Maya Help
Locators index 7
hair 768, 771 popup help 8
Lock Length Tutorials 3
hair 763, 784 using 7
Loft Tool 172, 176 using Help index 7
Look Through Selected 490 using Help Line 10
using Search 8
Maya nCloth 863
M Maya nParticles 915
Magnitude 540 Maya Nucleus 863, 915
main menu 20 Maya Software renderer
Make Boats 825 description 450
Index | 1019
Maya Vector renderer UVs 384
description 451 Move and Sew UVs 382
mayaLive.mll 982 Move Snap Settings 85
mayalive.so 982 Move Tool 35, 86
mental ray for Maya renderer 438, 523 N (normal) manipulator 94, 194
description 451 X, Y, Z manipulator 35
mental ray shaders mute track 257, 270
assigning to an nParticle output
mesh 972–974
menu sets 20 N
description 20 nCloth 863
Polygons 72 caching 898–899
selection 20 Collision Flag 876, 878
Mesh brushes collision thickness 870, 876
applications 598 collisions 868, 878, 899–900
attributes 603 constraints 880, 892, 908–909
description 598 creating 866, 868, 895
meteors 546 Dynamic Properties 892–895
Mirror Across 322 Initial State 905, 907
Mirror Geometry 119 Input Mesh Attract 902
modeling Mass 892
description 71, 717 Max Self Collide Iterations 910–911
polygons 72 painting properties 902–905
shaded mode 80 Quality Settings 909–911
symmetry 82 Self Trapped Check 910–911
types 71 Tangential Drag 893
Modify Curves neck
hair 763 joints 322
modules 20 New Matchmove 982
modulus operator (%) 648 new scene 30
morphing facial expressions 353 nodes
motion description 37
speeding up with Graph Editor 209 initialShadingGroup 66
motion capture data input 66
creating clips from 260 nParticleShape 922
description 259 Nucleus 922
extending the length of 261 parent 54
redirecting 266 pivot point 57
Motion Path renaming 54
Attach to Motion Path 222 root 54
motion path animation shape 66
description 220 transform 66
Motion Streak, nParticles 968 Noise
move hair 783
key points 207 non-dynamic fluid 791
objects 35 creating 801
1020 | Index
description 791 shading attributes 943–948
non-hair simulation 777 Stickiness 925–926
non-proportional scaling 50 Threshold 965
nonlinear animation tutorial 916
description 239 Nucleus 863, 915
normals Gravity 892
reversing 839 Gravity and Wind 949
surface 160, 838 node 922
Normals Space Scale 901, 922, 957
Harden Edge 125 Wind Speed 892
Soften Edge 124 Num Frequencies 823
nParticle tutorials Number of Sections 157
creating nParticles 917 Circle 172
overview 916 Number of Spans 157
simulating liquids 953 Numeric Display 795
simulating smoke 930 NURBS
nParticles applications 149
Blobby Radius Scale 965 creating NURBS curves 151
Bounce 925–926 editing tools 179
caching 967 Loft Tool 172
Collide Width Scale 926, 928, 960 sculpting NURBS surfaces 156
collisions 925–926, 960 Smoothness 158
Color 923 NURBS curves
converting to polygons 963–967 hair 754
creating 918–920, 931–933
creating liquid simulations 953–976
emission rate 924 O
emitter 918, 920, 931, 933 object selection 34, 120
Fill Object 954 ocean
Friction 925–926 attributes, modifying 822
Ignore Solver Gravity 934 creating 819
Incompressibility 961 plane 820
Lifespan 935 shader 819–820
Liquid Radius Scale 959 offset 294
Liquid Simulation attributes 958– Opacity 611, 806
963 Paint Cluster Weights Tool 350
Motion Streak 968 Sculpt Geometry Tool 163
nParticleShape node 922 Opacity Input 804
Nucleus nodes 922 operators
Nucleus wind 949 assigning values to 648
Output Mesh 965 equal to 648
Radius 923, 935 less than 636
Radius Scale 937–938 order of statements 638
rendering 971–976 orient constraint
Self Collide Width Scale 926–928 creating 297
self-collisions 926–928 description 296
Index | 1021
origin 18 pressure sensitivity 576
orthographic view 43 strokes 577
Outliner 244, 248, 275, 859 Temperature 816
description 153, 178 UV preparation 621
parenting objects 178 pairBlend attribute 236
placing clips from 254 panel 18
Output panel layout 509, 522
hair 754 parent constraint
Output Mesh, nParticles 965 description 305
Output window 457 weighting 308
Overall Pixel Slip 997 parent node 54
Oversample 771 parenting
Oversample Post Filter 771 description 285
particle attributes, per object and per
particle 548
P particle object 538
paint brushes particles
blending 572 applications 535
Paint Effects changing form of 545
3D objects 589, 593 description 536
applications 607 render type 545
Brush Settings window 617 streaks 546
brushes, 3D Paint 615 passive collision object 868, 897, 920,
making surfaces paintable 594 956
panel 587 Passive Fill
Paint Effects hair 754, 771 hair 759
Paint Effects to Polygons 601 path animation
Paint Fluids Tool 811 blending 231
Paint Fur Attributes Tool 843 description 220
Color Feedback 846 position marker 226
Flood 847 Twist attribute 230
Reflection 848 UValue 224
Smooth operation 847 per object attributes 548
Paint Hair Tool 754 Per Particle (Array) Attributes 645
Paint Selection Tool 83, 347 per particle attributes 548
Paint Skin Weights Tool 337 how to distinguish 548
Paint Weight Menu 338 Perlin Noise 804
painting perspective view 43
2D strokes 564 Photon Intensity 509, 512, 530
3D strokes 575 photon maps 526, 533
3D strokes in scene view 579 description 508
bump 618 visualizing 517
Density 811 Photon Refractions 529
fluid properties 811 photons
Fuel 811 Accuracy 531
interactively 618 Caustic Photons 532
1022 | Index
description 508 Ponds 827
Emit Photons 509 creating 827
Global Illum Photons 509 Predefined Filmbacks 983
Max Photon Depth 529 preferences
Photon Intensity 509, 512, 530 modeling 74
photon maps 533 preview plane 821
Photon Refractions 529 primitives
Radius 531 applications 29–30
Pitch 826 creating 21, 77
pivot point interactive creation 75
description 57 modifying 176
Plane constraint 1004 NURBS sphere 49
playback NURBS torus 61
animation 313 plane 590
controls 202 polygonal cube 46, 77
quickening 213 polygonal cylinder 31, 47
speed 202 types 30, 171
Playblast 205, 213 procedural textures 442
description 237 description 445
Playblast for matchmoving 1010 process 437
Plug-in Manager 982 projection mapping UVs 375
Fur 830 PSD file format 368
point constraint
description 294
Point constraint 1008 Q
Point Method 785 quads 78
Points Per Hair 759 Quality Settings 909, 911
Polar 841 Quaternion rotation 236
pole
surface 162
Pole Vector Constraint 331 R
Pole Vector XY Z 331
polygon count 129 Radius 531, 611, 923
Polygon Proxy Mode 185 Circle 172
polygonal cylinder Sphere 157
creating 31 Radius Scale 937–938
options 31 Radius, nParticles 935
polygons Radius(L) 164
component types 72 Radius(U) 160
display settings 74 Paint Cluster Weights Tool 350
extruding 97 Paint Skin Weights Tool 339
four-sided quads 78 rain 546
selection settings 74 ramps 549, 553
smoothing 79, 121 Randomization
Polygons to Subdiv 184 hair 759
Range Slider 202
raytracing 503
Index | 1023
Redirect Tool 266 Replace
creating redirect control 266 Paint Cluster Weights Tool 350
keyframing control 268 resolution, fluid 802
positioning control 267 Rest Position 759
reduce fur length 843 Retain component spacing 85
reference layer 835, 851 return to start time 202
Refine Selected Components 194, 196 reusing clips 253
reflect reverse normals 839
Paint Fur Attributes Tool 848 Revolve Tool 150
Reflection creating surfaces 153
Sculpt Geometry Tool 165 editing surfaces 153
Reflection X 612 rewind 202
refractions rgbPP attribute 548
Max Trace Depth 529 use in expressions 645
photon refraction 529 ribs
refraction levels 529 joints 324–325
Register step 1005 ridges
renaming clips 248 subdivision surface 195
renaming surfaces 833 rigid bodies 554
render a scene 860 active 558
Render Current Frame 585 applications 535
render image plane 1002 collisions 554
Render Sequence 552 constraints 554
Render Settings 458, 504, 860 passive 558
render types, setting for particles 545 rigid skinning 343
Render View 451, 523, 619 Roll 826, 841
Keep Image 507, 525 root
rendering skeleton 327
anti-aliasing 515 root node 54
batch rendering 459, 464 Rotate Tool
compositing layers 464 description 36
description 437 X, Y, Z manipulator 36
hardware 438, 464 X, Y, Z, manipulator 90
image size 505, 515 Rotate UVs 385
methods 438 rotating objects
overview 439 options 50
panel layout 509, 522 rotInterpolation 236
raytracing 503 runtime expressions 646
render settings 504 assigning rgbPP in 647
sampling 516
shading surfaces 466
shadows 506 S
software 438, 450 sampling 516
view region to be rendered 452 Save As 609
rendering nParticles 971, 976 Save Scene 27
rendering particles 553 saving files 27, 40, 59
1024 | Index
scale Set to Dynamic 798, 812, 816
non-proportional 50 Setup Cache control panel 985, 1010
Scale sewing UVs 381
Paint Skin Weights Tool 339 shaded mode 51, 80, 601
scale, multiplying by percentage 642 shader
scaling clips 257 fluid 803
scene painting view 587 Shading
scene view vs Render View 451 hair 775
Scraggle shading attributes 943, 948
fur setting 853 shading material
scrub 203 assigning 67
Sculpt Geometry Tool 156, 159 Blinn 67
basic techniques 159 shading networks
preparing surfaces 157 description 445
sculpting terrain 592 shading surfaces 466
Section Radius 543 shadowing
Selected Position 807 attribute for spotlights 858
selection Depth Map 859
border edges 89 Dmap Focus 859
Convert Selection 97 shadows 506, 523
faces 82 description 494
hierarchy 57 Shelf 22
hierarchy, object, component 56 preset brushes 578
masks and modes 22, 56 saving preset brushes 571
mode 22 shotCamera view panel 985
objects 24, 34, 120 Show/Hide Attribute Editor icon 859
Paint Selection Tool 83 Show/Hide Editor 22
polygon components 86 Size Rand 805
Select Border Edge Tool 90 Size X, Size Y 610, 619
UVs 379–380 size, container 802
vertices 87 skeletons 318
Self Collide Width Scale 926, 928 creating 282
Self Shadow 808 hierarchy 281
Self Trapped Check 910–911 moving group node 331
self-collisions, nParticles 926, 928 parenting models 285
self-shadowing posing and animating 328
fluid 808 root 327
semicolon terminator skin 333
expressions 628 skin weights 335–336
Set Driven Key 216 modify 338
Graph Editor 219 slice 811
Set Initial Position 557 Slices Per Voxel 815
Set Key 203 Smear 617
Set Preferred Angle 328 Smear, 3D Paint 617
Set Rest Position 766 Smooth
Set Start Position 762, 767 hair 765
Index | 1025
Paint Fur Attributes Tool 847 Standard Mode 191
Paint Skin Weights Tool 339 Start Position 759
Smooth Bind 335 setting 762
Smooth Shade All 80, 441 Start Track button 988
smooth skin 335 starting Maya 15
influence object 340 statements
unnatural deformation 336 expression order 638
smoothing polygons 79, 121 static channels
Snap Mode 22 remove 212
Snap to Grid 85 Static Grid 816
Snap to Points 173 Status Line 20–21
Soft Modification Tool 130 expanding and collapsing items 22
Soften Edge 124 Stickiness 925–926
Software renderer Stiffness
description 450 hair 761, 766
software rendering 450 Stiffness Scale
solo track 256 hair 766
Solve control panel 996 Streak render type 546
solver for Live 997 stroke
source clip 244 attributes 581
Source In 246 attributes, Global Scale 583
Source Out 246 attributes, Gravity 584
Space Scale 901, 922, 957 attributes,Turbulence 595
spans, displaying 158 description 577
Specular Stroke Refresh 588
hair 775 strokes
Specular Power deleting 596
hair 775 polygon conversion 601
Specularity 824 rendering 584, 597, 600
sphere primitive 49 tubes 580
options 63 Stylus Pressure 164, 576, 611
sphrand function, use with random Sub Segments
color 647 hair 772
spinal column Subdiv Proxy
joint chain 322 Crease Proxy Edge Tool 127
spine description 121
parenting arms and legs 327 toggle display 123
Split Polygon Tool 107 using 122
spotlight subdivision surfaces
aiming 489 converting polygons 183
Cone Angle 492 cutting 190
description 488 Extrude Face 187
spotlights 856 extrusion manipulator 189
Spottyness 805 selecting faces 187
Stamp Depth (3D) 816 selecting vertices 189
Stamp Spacing 615 Split Polygon Tool 185
1026 | Index
subvolume manipulators 811 Texture Type 804
summary track textures
description 255 cloth 446–447
surface interactive 3D placement 480
material 67 procedural 445
normals 160 texturing, fluid 804
pole 162 The Art of Maya 3
surface render 800 Thickness 870–876
surfaces normals 838 Thinning
survey constraints 1002, 1010 hair 772
Survey option 1003 Threshold, nParticles 965
symmetry 82 ticks
syntax, errors 637 red key 203
time
expressions 635
T predefined variable 628
Tail Fade 547 value at different frames 628
Tail Size 547 Time option 440
Tangent Time Slider 202
Graph Editor 214 time warps 275
handles in Graph Editor 208 tip width 853
Tangential Drag 893 Toggle Texture Borders 383
target applications 383
blend shape 352 Tool Settings 609
Temperature Toolbox 32
fluid property 792 transformation tools 34, 85
painting 816 torus
template brush options 61
description 566, 578 track 245
modifying settings 566 description 245
resizing 566 muting 257
template display 60, 319 soloing 256
applications 60 view area 246
description 60 track box tool 986
untemplating objects 65 Track control panel 984
template layer 851 track point 984
Test Render 551 Track Summary panel 989
texture map Track Tool 45
applications 361 description 45
assigning 366 Tracking Direction 988
description 361 transform nodes
procedural 442 not used for particle expressions 645
UVs 363 transparency, skin 335
Texture Opacity 804 Trax Editor
Texture Scale 805 character sets 246
Texture Time 809 clip library 270
Index | 1027
clip manipulator 258 UV Texture Editor
cycling a clip 264 applications 371
Graph Anim Curves 252 converting a selection 384
Load Selected Characters 245 description 371
motion capture data 259 Dim Image 377
mute track 257 Display Image 379, 384
Offset attribute 265 Display Unfiltered 387
panel layout 241 Move and Sew UVs 382
repositioning clips 250 Rotate UVs 385
scaling clips 257 Toggle Texture Borders 383
solo track 256 viewing UVs 373
summary track 255 UVs
time warps 275 Automatic Mapping 376
Toolbar 247 description 363
track 245 image range 373–374
triplanar projection 376 mapping 375
tubes modifying 379
attributes 604 moving 384
Creation 599 preparing for painting 621
editing attributes 570 projection mapping 375
Flower 599 selecting 379–380
Leaves 599 sewing 381
Tumble Tool shells 382
description 45 viewing 371, 373
turbulence 795
Turbulence
options 595 V
Twist 331 V Count
hair 764 hair 759
Twist attribute 230 Value
Two Panes Stacked 619 Paint Cluster Weights Tool 350
Vector renderer
U description 451
velocity
U Count controlling in particles 545
hair 759 Velocity, fluid property 792
UI Elements 609 vertices
undo 37, 592 subdivision surface 189–190
Update on Stroke 620 viewing rendered frames 462
Use Cache option 1002 viewing shaded objects 51
Use Depth Map Shadows 491, 495 views
user interface 15–16 orthographic 43
user preferences perspective 43
restoring 12 shaded 51
saving 11 wireframe 54
1028 | Index
Visor 244, 275 Wave Peaking 823
description 254 Wind Speed 892
placing clips from 254 Wireframe on Shaded mode 80
preset brushes 577, 593 workspace 17
volume axis field 539 world space coordinates 93
Volume Axis field 940–942
volume pixels 794
Volume Shape 539 X
voxels 794, 802 X-Ray 81, 335
X, Y, Z
W axes 19
axis indicator 19
Wakes origin 18
creation 827 X, Y, Z Resolution 802
water X, Y, Z Size 802
open 819 X, Z ground plane 579
Wave Length Max 823
Index | 1029
1030